Divisioa    3S500 

on       J)7^^ 


THE    HIGHER    CRITICISM 


THE   HIGHER 
CRITICISM 


jFour  Papers 


y  BY  >^ 

s.  r.'driver,  d.d. 

Canon  of  Christ  Church,  and  Regius  Professor  of 
Hebrew,  Oxford. 

AND 

A.   F.    KIRKPATRICK,    D.D. 

DEAN  OF  ELY 

(sometime  Master  of  Selwyn  College  and  Lady  Margaret's 
Professor  of  Divinity,  Cambridge). 


NEW  EDITION 


HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

1912 


Printed  in  the   City   of   London   at  the   Edinburgh   Press. 


PREFACE 

THE  first,  third  and  fourth  of  the  following  papers 
were  originally  reprinted  six  years  ago,  in  1905, 
in  the  hope  that  they  might  help  to  remove  some  of 
the  misconceptions  which,  as  various  articles  and 
letters  in  the  public  papers  had  shewn  at  the  time, 
prevailed  widely  with  regard  to  the  nature  and  scope 
of  the  "Higher  Criticism."  I  had  already  decided  to 
reprint  my  own  two  papers  with  this  view,  when  it 
occurred  to  me  that  the  paper  read  by  my  colleague, 
Professor  Kirkpatrick,  of  Cambridge,  now  Dean  of 
Ely,  at  the  Northampton  Church  Congress  in  1902, 
would  form  a  valuable  addition  to  them;  and  I  am 
grateful  to  him  for  the  ready  assent  which  he  gave 
to  my  proposal  that  this  paper  should  be  included 
with  mine.  It  seemed  to  both  of  us  that  to  reprint 
what  had  been  published  before  was  preferable  to 
writing  something  new,  in  order  to  preclude  its 
being  supposed  that  what  we  said  was  dictated,  or 
influenced,  by  the  needs  of  the  moment :  the  three 
papers  express  not  views  framed  hastily  at  the  time, 
but  views  which  had  been  formed  deliberately  long 
before,  and  held  by  each  of  us  for  many  years.  We 
have   reason   to   believe  that   the   papers   have   been 


PREFACE 

appreciated  and  found  useful.  Misunderstandings, 
such  as  those  alluded  to,  seem,  however,  unfor^ 
tunately,  to  be  still  prevalent  in  many  quarters;  and 
the  three  papers  have  been  accordingly  reprinted 
again, — with  the  addition  of  a  fourth,  the  second  in 
the  present  volume,  which  seemed  to  us  to  touch 
upon  some  aspects  of  the  subject  which  ought  not  to 
be  forgotten, — in  the  hope  that  they  may  still  be 
found  useful  in  removing  apprehensions,  and  in 
bringing  home  to  our  readers  both  the  necessity, 
and  the  value,  of  the  study  in  question. 

Our  aim  in  the  present  Preface  is,  firstly,  to  point 
out  a  prevalent  and  serious  misconception  of  the 
scope  of  the  "Higher  Criticism."  The  word  "critic" 
means  able  to  distinguish,  and  "criticism"  means  the 
power  or  art  of  distinguishing.  Both  terms  may,  of 
course,  be  used  of  many  different  kinds  of  "distin- 
guishing"; but  the  "higher"  criticism — the  methods 
of  which  are  applicable  to  any  ancient  writing,  and 
are  by  no  means  restricted  to  the  Bible — is  so  called 
in  contradistinction  to  the  "lower"  or  textual  criti- 
cism. When  the  text  of  an  ancient  writing  has  been 
settled,  as  accurately  as  possible,  by  the  canons  of 
textual  criticism,  it  becomes  the  province  of  the 
"higher"  criticism  to  determine  its  origin,  date,  and 
(if  it  be  composite)  literary  structure,  by  "distin- 
guishing" between  the  data  available  for  the  purpose. 
The  adjective  (the  sense  of  which  is  often  misunder- 
stood) has  reference  simply  to  the  higher  and  more 

vi 


PREFACE 

difficult  class  of  problems,  with  which,  as  opposed 
to  textual  criticism,  the  "higher"  criticism  has  to 
deal.  The  problems  which  form  the  subject  of  the 
"Higher  Criticism"  are  thus  properly  literary  prob- 
lems. When  the  date  and  historical  setting  of  an 
ancient  writing  have  been  determined,  it  is  no  doubt 
natural  to  draw  inferences  as  to  its  credibility  and|j  •^^'^'*- 
the  historical  character  of  the  events  described  in  it :  7 *""**■  " 
but  these  questions  belong  properly  not  to  the 
"higher"  criticism,  but  to  historical  criticism;  and  to 
extend  the  term  "Higher  Criticism,"  so  as  to  make 
it  include  not  only  the  consideration  of  such  histori- 
cal problems,  but  even  speculations,  probable  and 
improbable  alike,  on  subjects  such  as  the  origin  of 
the  traditions  or  civilization  of  the  ancient  Hebrews, 
and  the  influence  of  Babylonia  upon  them,  is  to 
abuse  it.  The  proper  function  of  the  "Higher  Criti- 
cism" is  to  determine  the  origin,  date,  and  literary 
structure  of  an  ancient  writing :  it  provides  materials 
for  the  historical  critic,  and  is  thus  ancillary  to  his- 
torical criticism,  but  is  itself  distinct  from  it.  The 
confusion  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  fact  that  scholars 
who  are,  amongst  other  things,  "higher  critics"  have 
also  in  their  writings  discussed,  and  expressed  judg- 
ments upon,  historical  problems  such  as  those  which 
have  been  referred  to :  but  in  so  far  as  they  have 
done  this,  they  have  done  it,  not  as  "higher  critics," 
but  as  historians  or  historical  critics;  and  the  fact 
forms  no  justification  for  attributing  to  the  "Higher 

vii. 


PREFACE 

Criticism"  judgments  and  conclusions  with  which  it 
has  properly  nothing  to  do. 

So  much  in  explanation  of  the  true  scope  of  the 
"Higher  Criticism."  Upon  other  points  the  papers 
which  follow  will  speak  for  themselves.  In  the  first 
are  stated  some  of  the  grounds  which,  as  it  seems  to 
both  of  us,  make  the  "Higher  Criticism"  a  necessity 
at  the  present  day,  and  give  its  generally  accepted 
conclusions  a  pressing  claim  upon  the  careful  con- 
sideration of  Christian  men.  The  second  discusses 
further  the  inevitableness  and  legitimacy  of  Criticism. 
It  is  shown  that  the  study  of  the  Bible  cannot  be 
isolated  from  the  influence  of  contemporary  methods 
of  study  and  modes  of  thought;  and  in  particular 
how  modern  methods  of  examining  literary  and  his- 
torical documents,  and  the  doctrine  of  development, 
compel  us  to  revise  many  traditional  ideas  in  regard 
to  the  Old  Testament.  The  arguments  frequently 
urged  against  the  legitimacy  of  criticism  on  the 
grounds  of  its  novelty  and  the  authority  of  the  New 
Testament  are  examined,  and  its  value  for  the  better 
understanding  of  the  Old  Testament  is  pointed  out. 
In  the  third  some  account  is  given  of  the  changed 
views  which  the  discoveries  and  researches  of  the  last 
half-century  have  obliged  thoughtful  men  to  adopt 
with  regard  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  of  the  help 
afforded  by  the  "Higher  Criticism"  in  throwing  its 
different  parts  into  their  true  historical  perspective, 
and  thereby  not  only  bringing  out  with  great  vivid- 

viii 


PREFACE 

ness  their  historical  significance,  but  also  setting 
before  us  far  more  clearly  than  appeared  before  the 
course  along  which  God  guided  His  people  Israel, 
and  gradually  led  them  to  a  fuller  knowledge  of 
Himself.  In  the  fourth  paper  it  is  shown  that  the 
application  to  the  Old  Testament  of  the  methods 
of  the  "Higher  Criticism"  implies  no  denial  of  its 
inspiration  or  disparagement  of  its  contents,  but  that 
it  must  ever  remain,  in  the  estimation  of  Christian 
men,  a  living  source  of  moral  and  religious  truth. 

Mention  has  been  made  above  of  the  "generally 
accepted"  conclusions  of  the  "Higher  Criticism";  and 
a  few  words  may  not  be  out  of  place  in  explanation 
of  the  expression.  Naturally,  in  a  subject  covering  a 
wide  area,  and  embracing  many  and  varied  details, 
some  conclusions  have  been  drawn  which,  though 
they  approve  themselves  to  individual  critics,  rest 
upon  fewer  and  slighter  data  than  others,  and  are  not 
accepted  by  all  critics;  it  also  happens  in  this,  as  in 
other  branches  of  research,  that  suggestions  and 
hypotheses  are  not  unfrequently  put  forth  tenta- 
tively,— and  also  usefully,  as  indicating  the  lines  upon 
which  attention  should  be  directed  and  investigation 
carried  on, — which  do  not  ultimately  receive  the 
approval  of  critics  in  general,  but  prove  to  be  ill- 
founded  or  arbitrary;  and  conclusions  of  this  indi- 
vidual or  provisional  character  are  sometimes  in- 
correctly spoken  of  as  though  they  were  the  con- 
clusions of  higher  critics  generally.     Of  course,  also, 

ix 


PREFACE 

the  expression  does  not  include  the  questionable  his- 
torical speculations  which  have  been  recently — 
though,  as  has  been  shown  above,  unjustly — laid 
somewhat  freely  to  the  charge  of  the  "Higher  Criti- 
cism." There  are  also  other  cases  in  which  it  is 
important  to  remember  that  the  position  of  critics 
is  frequently  misunderstood  by  their  opponents,  who 
in  consequence  often  urge  objections  which  are,  it 
is  true,  conclusive  against  the  misapprehended  posi- 
tion of  critics,  but  are  destitute  of  all  cogency 
against  their  real  position.*    It  is,  indeed,  sometimes 

*Thus,  to  take  an  example  of  one  of  the  commonest  of  these 
misunderstandings,  within  the  last  two  months  critics  have  been 
credited,  by  writers  who  might  have  been  supposed  to  be  well 
informed,  with  maintaining  the  post-exilic  origin  of  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  the  priestly  law,  and  even  that  of  "the  law" 
in  general,  and  objections  have  been  urged  which  would  undeni- 
ably be  fatal  to  these  positions.  But  as,  in  point  of  fact,  no 
critic  holds  these  positions,  the  real  critical  position  remains 
obviously  unaffected  by  the  objections.  What  critics  really  hold 
is  not  that  the  priestly  law  ongi?tated,  or  was  "  devised,"  in  or 
after  the  exile  (which  would  indeed  be  utterly  inconsistent  with 
the  known  facts),  but  that,  while  the  chief  ceremonial  institutions 
of  Israel  were  in  their  origin  of  great  antiquity,  the  laws  respect- 
ing them  were  gradually  developed  and  elaborated,  and  that 
in  the  shape  in  which  they  are  foj'mulated  in  the  priestly  sections 
of  the  Pe7itateuch  they  belong  to  the  exilic  or  early  post-exilic 
period.  The  institutions  of  the  priestly  law  are  thus  the  final 
outcome  of  a  long  established  Temple  usage.  This  position  is 
very  different  from  the  belief  that  these  institutions  were  the 
*'  invention  "  of  the  exilic  or  post-exilic  period,  and  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  all  the  known  facts,  even  including  the  injunction 
to  observe  the  Feast  of  Unleavened  Cakes  in  419  B.C.,  and  the 
mention  of  the  burnt-offering,  the  meal-offering,  and  frankincense 
in  409  B.C.,  in  the  papyri  discovered  recently  at  Elephantine  in 
Upper  Egypt.  See  further  the  writer's  Introduction  to  the  Litera. 
ture  of  the  Old  Testament^  p.  142,  or  his  essay  on  the  •'  Critical 
Study  of  the  Old  Testament,"  in  the  series  called  Essays  for  the 
Ti?nes  (Francis  Griffiths),  No.  21,  pp.  30-33. 

X 


PREFACE 

asserted  that  even  the  most  generally  accepted  con- 
clusions of  the  "Higher  Criticism"  are  contradicted 
by  archaeology :  but  our  readers  must  rest  assured 
that  this  is  not  the  case :  such  statements  rest 
uniformly  upon  some  misapprehension  either  of  the 
grounds  upon  which  critics  rest  their  conclusions, 
or  of  the  bearing  of  the  facts  of  archaeology  upon 
them.*  It  need  only  be  added,  lastly,  that  in  what 
has  been  said,  both  in  this  Preface  and  in  the 
papers  which  follow, — except  in  one  or  two  places 
where  the  contrary  will  be  self-evident, — the  Old 
Testament  alone  has  been  held  in  view.  With 
regard  to  the  New  Testament,  it  may  be  sufficient 
to  observe  that,  as  has  been  pointed  out  below 
(p.  52),  the  very  different  conditions  under  which 
the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  were  produced, 
and  especially  the  relatively  short  interval  of  time 
separating  them  from  the  period  of  our  Lord's  life 
upon  earth,  make  it  to  our  minds  impossible  that 
the  application  to  it  of  the  methods  of  the  "Higher 
Criticism"  (in  the  legitimate  sense  of  the  expression), 
though  it  may  alter  our  view  of  the  origin  and  struc- 
ture of  some  of  the  documents  concerned,  should 
ever  affect  appreciably  the  historical  evidence  for  all 
the  leading  facts  of  our  Lord's  life,  or  for  the  vital 
truths   of   Christianity.  S.  R.  D. 

November  18,   191 1. 

*  See  for  illustrations  an  article  by  G.  B.  Gray,  in  the  Expositor, 
May,  1898,  p.  337  ff.  ;  Hogarth's  Authority  and  Arch(Eology  (1899), 
p.  143  ff. ;  or  Chapman's  Introduction  to  the  Pentateuch  (uniform 
with  the  volumes  of  the  Cambridge  Bible),  191 1,  p.  305  ff. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I     The  Claims  of  Criticism  upon  the  Clergy 

AND  Laity.      By  A.  F.  Kirkpatrick,  D.D.       3 

II     The    Inevitableness     and     Legitimacy     of 

Criticism.       By  A.  F.  Kirkpatrick,  D.D.     17 

III  The  Old   Testament  in  the  Light   of  To- 

Day.     By  S.  R.  Driver,  D.D.   ...     37 

IV  The    Permanent    Religious   Value   of   the 

Old  Testament.     By  S.  R.  Driver,  D.D.     71 

Select  List  of  Books  .         .         .         .89 


The  Claims  of  Criticism  upon  the 
Clergy   and   Laity. 


I. 

THE   CLAIMS   OF   CRITICISM   UPON 

THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY.* 

By  A.  F.  KIRKPATRICK,  D.D. 

THE  aim  of  the  Christian  student  is  truth;  and 
the  aim  of  the  Christian  teacher  is  to  bring 
that  truth  to  bear  upon  human  character  and  Ufe. 
The  Old  Testament  forms  an  integral  part  of  the 
Bible.  It  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Christian 
Church  by  its  Founder  and  His  Apostles  as  the  re- 
cord of  God's  revelation  of  Himself  to  His  chosen 
people  and  the  manifold  preparation  for  His  own 
coming;  as  the  source  from  which  instruction  in  con- 
duct was  to  be  derived  and  as  the  means  by  which 
the  spiritual  life  was  to  be  fed.  We  cannot,  there- 
fore, treat  it  as  any  other  book:  it  is  sacred  ground; 
reverence  is  demanded  of  us  as  we  approach  it. 
But  it  is  no  true  reverence  which  would  exempt 
it  from  the  fullest  examination  by  all  legitimate 
methods  of  criticism.  Inquiry  into  the  origin,  the 
structure,  the  character,  the  meaning  of  the  books 
which  compose  it  is  not  only  permissible,  but  indis- 
pensable.    "To  discover  more  clearly  how  anything 

*  A  Paper  read  at  the  Church  Congress,  Northampton,  Octo- 
ber, 1902. 

3 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  CRITICISM 

has  grown  may  enable  us  more  truly  to  estimate  its 
worth  and  to  distinguish  it  more  confidently  from  all 
other  things."  God's  revelation  of  Himself  was  pro- 
gressive, and  its  interpretation  must  be  progressive. 
We  may  reasonably  expect  that  "every  increase  of 
knowledge  will  bring  forth  a  deeper  knowledge  of 
the  truth  committed  to  His  Church."  New  modes 
of  thought,  more  searching  methods  of  literary  and 
historical  investigation,  fresh  discoveries  of  science 
and  archceology,  must  necessarily  affect  and  modify 
the  interpretation  of  the  Bible.  It  was  once  as 
easy  as  it  was  natural  to  regard  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  as  a  literal  account  of  the  way  in  which  the 
universe  was  brought  into  being;  now  that  we  have 
read  the  records  of  the  rocks  and  learnt  some  frag- 
ments of  the  mystery  of  the  heavens,  we  know  that 
it  cannot  be  regarded  as  literal  history.  But  its 
religious  value  remains  unaltered.  It  teaches  reli- 
gious truths  which  geology  aud  astronomy  could 
never  teach  with  authority — truths  which  are  more 
important  for  the  mass  of  mankind  than  all  the 
results  of  the  most  elaborate  scientific  researches. 

But  truth  is  not  to  be  won  without  effort  and,  it 
may  be,  pain;  and  even,  as  it  may  seem,  temporary 
loss.  Times  of  change  must  be  times  of  trial.  They 
call  for  faith,  courage,  patience,  sympathy : — for  faith 
that  God  is  still  teaching  His  Church,  as  He  taught 
it  of  old,  TToXyjuLepcog  Kul  TroXvrpoTrioQ,  "by  divers  portions 
and  in  divers  manners"   (Heb.  i.   i);  for  courage  to 

4 


UPON  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 

go  forward  trustfully,  following  the  light  of  the  rea- 
son which  God  has  given  us;  for  patience  to  "prove 
all  things"  and  "hold  fast  that  which  is  good";  for 
sympathy  between  those  who  cling  to  tradition  and 
those  who  are  animated  by  the  desire  for  progress. 

Now,  what  is  the  position  of  students  and  teachers 
of  the  Bible  to-day  ?  They  are  face  to  face  with  a 
treatment  of  the  Bible,  especially  the  Old  Testament, 
which  half  a  century  ago  would  have  seemed  utterly 
irreverent,  subversive  of  the  foundations  of  the  faith; 
and  which  still  seems  to  many  (it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at)  irreverent  and  mischievous.  Let  me 
try  briefly  to  state  what  modern  criticism  is  saying 
with  regard  to  the  Old  Testament.  Pardon  me  if, 
for  the  sake  of  brevity,  my  statement  is  somewhat 
blunt  and  dogmatic. 

(i)  Textual  criticism  declares  the  text  to  be  seri- 
ously corrupt.  The  old  theory  of  the  perfection  of 
the  Massoretic  text — i.e.,  the  "traditional"  Hebrew 
text,  as  fixed  and  handed  down  by  the  later  Jewish 
scribes — is  no  longer  tenable  in  the  face  of  a  mass 
of  cumulative  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

(2)  Linguistic  criticism  throws  doubt  upon  the 
interpretation  of  not  a  few  passages.  The  meaning 
of  words  is  disputed;  grammatical  constructions  are 
ambiguous;  allusions  are  obscure;  translation  fails 
adequately  to  convey  the  meaning  of  the  original, 
and  honesty  compels  us  to  recognize  an  element  of 
uncertainty  in  a  multitude  of  renderings. 

5 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  CRITICISM 

(3)  The  so-called  "higher,"*  or  literary,  criticism 
has  investigated  the  origin  of  the  various  books,  and 
pronounces  that  some  books  once  supposed  to  have 
been  written  by  single  authors  are  compilations  with 
a  long  and  complicated  literary  history,  and  that 
some  books  cannot  have  been  written  by  the  authors 
whose  names  they  bear.  Sometimes  it  goes  further, 
and  asserts  that  some  books  have  been  revised  and 
interpolated  in  such  a  way  that  their  original  authors 
would  hardly  be  able  to  recognize  them. 

(4)  Historical  criticism  affirms  that  much  of  the 
history  has  been  coloured  by  the  beliefs'  and  practices 
of  the  times  in  which  the  books  were  compiled,  long 
after  the  events,  and  must  be  regarded  as  rather  an 
ideal  than  an  actual  picture  of  the  national  life.  It 
requires  us  to  a  great  extent  to  revolutionize  our 
views  of  the  course  of  the  history  of  Israel. 

(5)  The  researches  of  archaeology  and  the  com- 
parative study  of  religions  show  that  the  religion  of 
Israel  derived  many  elements  from  the  primitive 
religion  of  the  Semites,  possessed  much  in  common 
with  the  religions  of  surrounding  nations,  and  was 
largely  influenced  in  its  development  by  the  faiths 
with  which  it  came  in  contact  in  the  course  of  its 
history. 

In  these  and  other  ways  modern  criticism  is  de- 
manding a  new  treatment  of  the  Bible,  which  seems 

*  On  the  meaning  of  this  expression,  see  the  Preface  to  the 
present  pamphlet,  pp.  vi-viii. 


UPON  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 

to  many  incompatible  with  the  reverence  due  to  it; 
it  is  offering  a  new  view  of  the  Bible  which  seems  to 
many  to  impair,  if  not  to  destroy  its  value.  Is  not 
all  this  perplexing,  disquieting,  unsettling  ?  Yes ; 
but  the  new  movement  cannot  be  ignored;  it  cannot 
be  crushed  by  denunciation;  if  it  rests,  as  its  advo- 
cates claim  that  it  does,  upon  the  honest  recognition 
of  facts,  it  must  in  the  end  be  triumphant.  Now 
practically  every  one  who  has  made  any  serious  study 
of  the  Old  Testament  has  felt  himself  compelled  to 
admit  that  the  traditional  view  of  its  character — 
the  view  which  was  generally  accepted  fifty  years 
ago — can  no  longer  be  maintained  without  modifica- 
tion. Many  students  of  the  Old  Testament,  probably 
a  majority  of  them,  have  found  themselves  compelled 
to  go  further,  to  accept  critical  principles,  and  to 
revise  their  views  of  its  textual,  literary,  and  histori- 
cal character  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  in  the 
directions  I  have  indicated.  They  have  done  so,  not 
in  obedience  to  any  d.  priori  philosophical  or  theo- 
logical theories,  but  as  the  result  of  a  careful  and 
unprejudiced  examination  of  the  facts  in  the  light  of 
modern  critical  methods  and  enlarged  knowledge. 
But  they  have  not  abandoned  their  belief  that  the 
Old  Testament  is  the  God-given  record  of  God's 
special  revelation  of  Himself  through  Israel  in  pre- 
paration for  the  Incarnation,  and  as  such  of  per- 
manent significance  for  the  Christian  Church. 

This  being  the  case,  the  clergy  are  in  duty  bound 
7 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  CRITICISM 

to  endeavour  to  understand  the  methods  of  criticism, 
to  estimate  the  validity  of  its  results,  and  to  consider 
how  those  results,  if  true,  must  affect  their  teaching. 
For  if  those  methods  are,  generally  speaking,  sound; 
if  those  results  are,  to  any  considerable  extent,  valid; 
?\readers  of  the  Bible  must  be  gently  and  gradually 
jjprepared  to  accept  them.  The  responsibiUty  laid 
upon  the  teachers  of  the  present  generation  is  to 
guide  those  entrusted  to  their  care  safely  through 
the  inevitable  dangers  of  a  time  of  change;  to  show- 
that  the  Bible  is  not  less  the  Word  of  God  because 
we  are  forced,  in  the  light  of  modern  research,  to 
acknowledge  that  it  does  not  possess  many  char-' 
acteristics  which  it  was  once  believed  to  possess,  and 
which  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  essential  notes  of 
a  record  of  divine  revelation;  to  explain  how  its 
religious  value  is  not  diminished,  but  increased,  by 
a  courageous  treatment  of  it  in  the  light  of  fuller 
knowledge.  The  clergy  who  are  to  teach  must  teach 
themselves;  they  have  promised  to  be  diligent  in 
such  studies  as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture; and  some  knowledge  of  modern  criticism  is 
indispensable,  partly  that  they  may  avoid  basing  the 
truth  of  Christianity  upon  insecure  foundations  and 
defending  positions  which  they  will  presently  be 
forced  to  abandon;  partly  that  they  may  not  be 
guilty  of  ignoring  the  new  light  upon  the  meaning  of 
Scripture  which  God  intends  should  be  thrown  by 
the  progress  of  modern  thought.   For  there  is  a  grave 

8 


( 


UPON  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 

danger  to  faith  in  insisting  upon  views  which  the 
majority  of  thinking  men  have  found  or  will  shortly 
find  to  be  untenable;  and  there  is  a  serious  loss 
to  the  faith  if  the  results  of  criticism  are  ignored, 
supposing  its  claim  to  offer  a  larger  and  sounder 
theology  is  to  any  extent  well-grounded.  I  do  not 
plead  that  the  processes  or  results  of  modern  criti- 
cism should  often,  if  ever,  be  directly  discussed  in 
the  pulpit;  in  many  churches  they  would  be  utterly 
out  of  place  and  would  only  perplex  and  annoy; 
but  I  do  believe  that  they  must  be  taken  careful 
account  of  in  determining  the  way  in  which  the  Old 
Testament  is  taught,  if  the  faith  of  the  next  genera- 
tion is  to  be  spared  an  abrupt  and  perilous  shock. 
But  here  it  is  necessary,  in  view  of  certain  recent 
developments  of  criticism,  to  point  out  that  it  is 
all-important  to  distinguish  between  sober  criticism, 
the  results  of  which  have  been  tested  and  are  gener- 
ally accepted,  and  speculative  criticism,  which  is  the 
outcome  of  individual  ingenuity,  and  is  never  hkely 
to  command  a  general  approval.  Sober  criticism  is 
objective,  it  carefully  collects  facts,  arranges  them, 
and  endeavours  to  ascertain  their  meaning.  It  re- 
cognizes its  hmitations;  it  acknowledges  that  many 
of  its  conclusions  are  only  probable.  Speculative 
criticism  is  subjective;  it  often  pretends  to  impossi- 
bilities; it  depends  on  the  intuition  of  the  critic; 
and  frequently  it  convinces  no  one  but  himself. 
Thus,  for  example,   it  must   be  admitted  that  in  a 

9 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  CRITICISM 

large  number  of  instances  the  text  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  corrupt,  and  honesty  requires  us  to  acknow- 
ledge it;  but  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  in  more 
than  a  few  instances  the  original  text  can  with  cer- 
tainty be  restored  by  conjecture;  and  it  is  ridiculous 
to  imagine  that  history  can  be  re-written  by  the  aid 
of  a  long  series  of  unsupported  guesses,  however 
ingenious.  The  results  of  literary  criticism  are  at 
best  only  probable,  though  in  many  cases  the  proba- 
bility amounts  to  practical  certainty;  but  literary 
criticism  has  been  pushed  to  the  wildest  extremes,  as 
for  instance  when  we  are  told  that  we  have  no  genu- 
ine writings  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah  except  a  few 
lyric  poems,  and  that  only  a  dim  remembrance  of 
the  grand  form  of  the  prophet  is  to  be  discerned  in 
the  poetic  portions  of  the  book.  The  results  of  his- 
torical criticism,  again,  are  only  probable;  it  may 
easily  be  mistaken  in  its  attempts  to  reconstruct  his- 
tory from  scanty  details;  it  is  often  presumptuous 
in  presenting  as  certainties  what  are  only  tentative 
theories.  Every  movement  is  sure  to  have  its  extra- 
vagances; they  misrepresent  and  injure  it,  for  those 
who  dislike  the  movement  are  only  too  ready  to  judge 
it  by  its  extravagances,  and  to  point  to  them  as  char- 
acteristic, when  they  are  mere  excrescences;  and  at 
the  present  time  there  are  such  extravagances  of  criti- 
cism, which  must  not  be  regarded  as  normal  and  re- 
presentative. Those  on  whom  lies  the  responsibility 
of  teaching  are  bound  to  examine  and  discriminate. 

10 


UPON  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 

But  to  return  to  our  main  subject.  In  what  ways 
does  modern  criticism  affect  theology,  i.e.,  our  whole 
view  of  the  content  of  God's  revelation  of  Himself 
and  of  the  way  in  which  it  was  given  and  recorded  ? 
Let  me  speak  of  three  points — the  mode  of  revelation, 
the  character  of  prophecy,  the  nature  of  inspiration. 

(i)  It  leads  us  to  regard  God's  revelation  of  Him- 
self as  a  more  gradual  process  than  we  had  supposed 
it  to  be;  effected  to  a  large  extent  by  the  action  of 
ordinary  forces,  developed  in  ways  which  we  should 
now  call  natural  rather  than  supernatural.  There  is 
an  analogy  between  the  process  of  revelation  and  the 
process  of  creation  as  we  now  understand  it.  The 
shaping  of  the  universe,  we  now  know,  was  the  work 
not  of  six  literal  days,  but  of  immeasurable  ages;  yet 
it  was  no  whit  the  less  the  obedient  response  of  mat- 
ter to  the  fiat  of  Omnipotence.  The  lofty  creed  of 
ethical  Monotheism  was  not  flashed  into  the  heart  of 
the  nation  once  for  all  amid  the  lightnings  of  Sinai, 
but  won  through  many  a  struggle  and  many  a  failure ; 
yet  none  the  less  it  was  Jehovah's  message  to  the 
nation  from  the  day  when  He  brought  it  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt. 

(2)  Prophecy,  that  unique  gift  of  ancient  Israel, 
was  far  more  closely  linked  with  the  time  and  cir- 
cumstances of  its  delivery  than  was  formerly  thought. 
We  should  place  its  evidential  value  now  far  more  in 
its  moral  force  than  in  its  predictions,  though  this 
element  must  not  be  denied  or  minimised.     It  was 

11 


THE  CLAIMS   OF  CRITICISM 

the  exposition  of  eternal  principles  in  the  language 
of  the  time;  rooted  in  the  history  and  institutions  of 
the  chosen  people;  conditioned  by  the  temperaments 
and  fortunes  and  environments  of  individual  pro- 
phets; yet  none  the  less  surely  a  message  from  God, 
and  no  mere  fanciful  aspiration  of  enthusiasts  and 
fanatics,  or  natural  expression  of  moral  ideals  by  the 
best  representatives  of  a  naturally  religious  race. 

(3)  Criticism  compels  us  to  revise  our  doctrine  of 
the  inspiration  of  Scripture.  We  must  not  ascribe 
an  equal  value  and  authority  to  every  part  of  the 
Old  Testament.  We  must  no  longer  talk  of  its  in- 
fallibility and  inerrancy.  We  must  distinguish  its 
temporary,  imperfect  elements.  Our  Lord  Himself 
taught  us  to  do  so.  While  we  hold  fast  to  the  belief 
that  the  Old  Testament  contains  the  record — the 
divinely-shaped  record — of  God's  revelation  of  Him- 
self to  Israel  and  through  Israel,  we  seem  to  be 
forced  to  admit  that  the  record  was  not  given  and 
has  not  been  preserved  in  such  form  as  we  might 
antecedently  have  expected  and  as  has  generally 
been  believed.  And  surely,  in  this  connexion,  the 
fact  that  for  centuries  the  Old  Testament  was  known 
to  the  Church  only  through  most  imperfect  versions 
gives  much  matter  for  reflection. 

What  follows  from  these  results  of  criticism  ?  Is 
not  our  theology  liberated,  deepened,  strengthened  ? 

(i)  It  is  liberated. — We  are  relieved  of  a  multitude 
of   difficulties   in   the   study   of   the   Old   Testament 

12 


UPON  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 

when  we  accept  in  general  principle,  if  not  in  every 
detail,  the  critical  account  of  its  origin  and  character. 
We  need  no  longer  spend  our  time  and  energy  in 
attempting  to  reconcile  every  supposed  discrepancy. 
We  can  recognize  most  frankly  that  the  immoralities 
and  barbarities  and  imprecations  which  shock  us 
belong  to  a  lower  stage  of  religious  history.  Unful- 
filled prophecies  need  no  longer  perplex  us.  We  can 
look  away  from  details  to  the  great  central  truths 
which  were  being  slowly  taught  to  an  unwilling 
nation,  to  the  great  divine  purpose  for  the  world 
which  was  being  patiently  wrought  out  in  and 
through  the  vicissitudes  of  the  nation's  history  and 
the  sufferings  and  triumphs  of  its  individual  mem- 
bers. 

(2)  It  is  deepened. — For  at  the  present  moment, 
through  the  instrumentaUty  of  this  criticism,  which 
to  many  seems  destructive  and  unsettling,  God  is 
surely  driving  us  back,  lovingly  if  sternly,  from  the 
letter  to  the  spirit;  from  the  word  to  the  Speaker; 
from  external  details  to  the  great  spiritual  truths 
which  underlie  them.  We  only  follow  our  Lord's 
example  if  we  concentrate  attention  on  the  great 
principles  which  sum  up  the  teaching  of  the  Old 
Testament  (Matt.  vii.  12;  xxii.  40). 

(3)  It  is  strengthened. — Criticism  compels  us  to  a 
deeper  and  more  careful  study  of  the  way  in  which 
God  wrought  out  His  purposes  in  the  world  in  his- 
tory as  well  as  in  creation;  and  I  cannot  but  believe 

13 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  CRITICISM 

that  it  has  a  special  message  for  our  time,  because 
it  presents  to  us  a  view  of  His  action  in  past  his- 
tory which  will  confirm  our  faith  and  help  us  to 
believe  more  confidently  in  His  continued  working 
in  the  world.  As  we  enter  more  and  more  sympath- 
etically into  the  nature  of  the  process  of  God's  work- 
ing in  old  time  we  begin  to  realize  how  hard  it  must 
have  been  at  the  time  to  be  sure  that  God  was 
guiding  the  destinies  of  Israel;  yet  as  we  survey  the 
completed  history  we  cannot  fail  to  trace  His  guid- 
ance: and  so  we  are  encouraged  to  believe  that,  hard 
as  we  may  sometimes  find  it  to  recognize  His  guid- 
ing hand  in  the  tangled  history  of  the  present,  all 
is  converging  to  the  "one  far-off  divine  event" — the 
universal   establishment   of   His   eternal   sovereignty. 


14 


The   Inevitableness  and   Legitimacy 
OF  Criticism. 


II. 

THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND  LEGITIMACY  OF 
CRITICISM.* 

I.— Each  age  has  its  trials  of  faith  which  come  to 
it  through  the  progress  of  thought  and  the  advance 
of  knowledge.  Upon  each  successive  generation  is 
laid  the  task  of  adapting  its  interpretation  of  the 
Bible  to  the  growing  knowledge  of  the  time;  and  in 
an  age  when  new  methods  of  investigation  and  new 
modes  of  thought  are  affecting  all  our  studies, 
changes,  and  starthng  changes,  are  inevitable  in  re- 
gard to  our  conceptions  of  the  character  of  the  Bible. 
Loyalty  to  fresh  light  is  not  less  a  duty  than  loyalty 
to  our  inheritance  from  the  past.  The  education  of 
the  world  goes  on  apace,  and  unless  Theology  can 
keep  in  touch  with  it,  it  must  renounce  its  claim  to 
be  the  Queen  of  Sciences.  And  then  religion  must 
inevitably  suffer.  Forcible  repression  of  freedom  of 
thought  must  foster  superstition  or  scepticism,  and 
in  the  end  it  is  compelled  to  acknowledge  its  defeat. 
The  study  of  the  Bible  cannot  be  isolated  from  the 
influence  of  contemporary  methods  of  study  and 
modes  of  thought. 

*  A  Paper  read  at  the  St.  Albans  Diocesan  Conference,  October, 
1904,  and  reprinted  from  the  Interpreter  for  March,  1905,  p.  201^ 

17 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

History  abounds  in  warnings.  "Luther  denounced 
Copernicus  as  an  arrogant  foe  who  wrote  in  defiance 
of  Scripture,  and  Melanchthon  urged  the  suppression 
of  such  mischievous  doctrines  by  the  secular  power."* 
The  terrors  of  the  Inquisition  were  invoked  to  silence 
Galileo.  But  Astronomy  triumphed.  Not  half  a 
century  ago  Geology  was  supposed  to  be  antagon- 
istic to  religion,  and  it  is  only  by  slow  degrees  that 
we  have  come  to  see  that  Scripture  and  Science  can- 
not be  at  variance,  because  Scripture  was  never  in- 
tended to  teach  Science,  and  must  be  interpreted 
in  accordance  with  the  established  results  of  Science. 
We  can  now  listen  with  equanimity  to  a  science 
which  postulates  enormous  periods  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  earth,  and  thinks  that  man  may  have 
existed  on  it  for  50,000  or  even  100,000  years. 

n. — There  are  two  forces  at  work  in  the  present 
day,  compelling  us  to  revise  many  of  our  traditional 
ideas  with  regard  to  the  Old  Testament :  (a)  the 
modern  methods  of  examining  historical  and  literary 
documents;  (b)  the  doctrine  of  development.  Shall 
we  attempt  to  crush  them  by  denunciation  ?  If  the 
methods  of  investigation  and  the  principles  of 
thought  are  sound  and  scientific,  the  attempt,  as 
experience  shews,  is  foredoomed  to  failure.  Let  me 
quote  the  opinion  of  an  eminent  historian  in  regard 
to  them,  and  first,  in  regard  to  the  examination  of 
documents.  In  his  inaugural  lecture.  Professor  Bury, 
*  Chambers'  Encyclopaedia,  iii.,  462. 
18 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

Lord  Acton's  successor  in  the  Chair  of  Modern 
History  at  Cambridge,  spoke  of  "the  revolution 
which  is  slowly  and  silently  progressing"  in  historical 
studies.  Before  the  beginning  of  the  last  century 
the  study  of  history  was,  as  a  rule,  not  scientific. 
But  "erudition  has  now  been  supplanted  by  scientific 
method."  It  was  "not  a  historian  but  a  philologist," 
who  "gave  a  powerful  stimulus  to  the  introduction 
of  critical  methods  which  are  now  universally  applied. 
Six  years  before  the  eighteenth  century  closed  a 
modest  book  appeared  at  Halle,  of  which  it  is  per- 
haps hardly  a  grave  exaggeration  to  say  that  it  is 
one  of  half  a  dozen  which  in  the  last  three  hundred 
years  have  exercised  most  effective  influence  upon 
thought.  The  work  I  mean  is  Wolf's  Prolegomena 
to  Homer.  It  launched  upon  the  world  a  new  engine 
— donum  exitiale  Minervae — which  was  soon  to  menace 
the  walls  of  many  a  secure  citadel.  It  gave  historians 
the  idea  of  a  systematic  and  minute  method  of 
analysing  their  sources,  which  soon  developed  into 
the  microscopic  criticism,  now  recognised  as  in- 
dispensable." 

Let  me  call  another  witness  in  the  same  depart- 
ment of  study.  In  his  excellent  handbook  on  The 
Study  of  Ecclesiastical  History  the  late  Bishop  of  Gib- 
raltar, Dr.  Collins,  writes,  (p.  33),  "The  next  step 
that  the  student  must  undertake  is  the  examination 
of  the  documents  which  he  has  obtained.  He  must 
take   them   one   by   one   and   examine   and   appraise 

19 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

them  as  carefully  as  he  can.  Is  this  a  faithful  text 
or  is  it  corrupt  ?  is  it  really  the  work  of  the  author 
to  whom  it  is  ascribed  ?  was  he  a  contemporary  wit- 
ness ?  if  not,  when  did  he  live  ?  when  did  he  write  ? 
what  were  his  opportunities  of  knowing  the  facts  ? 
was  he  biassed,  and  if  so,  in  what  direction  ?  did  he 
write  with  a  purpose,  and  if  so,  with  what  purpose  ? 
What  can  be  learned  on  these  points  from  internal, 
and  what  from  external  evidence  ?  and  do  the  con- 
clusions agree  to  which  these  two  respectively  lead  ? 
Such  are  the  questions  which  must  be  asked  with 
regard  to  each  document;  and  the  answers  to  these 
questions,  so  far  as  they  can  be  ascertained,  must 
henceforward  be  borne  constantly  in  mind  in  deal- 
ing with  the  documents  concerned." 

These  methods  have  been  appUed  to  the  books  of 
the  Bible,  and  these  questions  have  inevitably  been 
asked  concerning  them.  We  cannot  isolate  the  study 
of  the  Bible,  and  refuse  to  submit  it  to  the  processes 
which  are  freely  applied  to  all  literature  and  all  his- 
torical documents.  Its  sacred  character  cannot  ex- 
empt it  from  such  inquiries.  We  believe  it  to  be  in- 
spired; but  we  have  no  right  to  assume  a  priori  that 
inspiration  would  render  such  investigations  super- 
fluous or  profane :  and  the  most  elementary  acquaint- 
ance with  a  few  simple  facts  shews  the  untenableness 
of  such  an  assumption. 

We  can  no  longer  approach  the  study  of  the  Old 
Testament  with  a  belief  in  the  absolute  integrity  of 

20 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

the  text.  In  the  seventeenth  century  there  were 
scholars  who  went  so  far  as  to  maintain  the  in- 
spiration and  absolute  accuracy  of  even  the  vowel 
points  of  the  Massoretic  Text,  but  the  simplest 
application  of  the  principles  of  textual  criticism 
demonstrates  the  impossibility  of  such  a  hypothesis. 
There  are  traditions  of  date  and  authorship  received 
from  the  Jewish  Church  and  long  regarded  as  auth- 
oritative, which  can  no  longer  be  upheld,  when  they 
are  tested  by  internal  evidence.  Books  and  groups 
of  books  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  a  single 
author  are  seen  to  be  compilations  from  sources 
differing  widely  in  character;  and  some  books  contain 
the  plainest  indications  of  a  date  at  variance  with 
the  traditional  attribution.  If  two  accounts  of  the 
same  event  are  inconsistent,  we  are  compelled  to 
endeavour  to  form  a  judgment  which  is  the  most 
trustworthy,  and  to  explain  how  the  discrepancy  is 
to  be  accounted  for. 

Whatever  difficulties  may  be  raised,  these  ques- 
tions must  be  investigated  patiently,  thoroughly, 
dispassionately.  We  must  not  be  alarmed  if  we 
find  the  same  phenomena  meeting  us  in  our  sacred 
documents  which  we  find  in  secular  writings.  In  so 
far  as  the  cases  are  parallel,  they  must  be  dealt 
with  in  the  same  way. 

III. — Let  us  take  a  simple  illustration  of  the  com- 
pilatory  character  of  the  historical  books.  In  chap- 
ters vii.  to  xii.  of  the  First  Book  of  Samuel  two  in- 

21 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

dependent  accounts  of  the  election  of  Saul  to  be 
king  are  combined.  One  is  contained  in  chapters  ix., 
X.  1-16,  xi. :  the  other  in  chapters  vii.,  viii.,  x.  17-27, 
xii.  In  the  first,  Samuel  appears  as  a  seer  who  may- 
be consulted  for  advice  in  cases  of  difficulty,  but 
famous  apparently  only  in  his  own  neighbourhood. 
In  the  second,  Samuel  is  the  Judge  of  Israel,  who 
goes  on  circuit  from  place  to  place  over  a  consider- 
able district.  According  to  the  first  account,  Israel 
is  oppressed  by  the  Philistines;  their  cry  has  come 
up  to  Jehovah,  and  He  has  determined  to  send  them 
a  deliverer.  According  to  the  second,  the  Philistines 
have  been  repulsed  by  the  Israehtes  under  Samuel's 
leadership;  the  demand  for  a  king  comes  from  the 
people,  who  are  discontented  with  the  misgovern- 
ment  of  Samuel's  sons;  and  it  is  condemned  as  a 
wicked  rejection  of  Jehovah's  sovereignty.  Accord- 
ing to  the  first  account,  Saul  is  brought  to  Samuel 
by  a  chain  of  providential  circumstances,  privately 
anointed  by  him,  and  directed  to  await  his  oppor- 
tunity, which  comes  shortly  afterwards  when  the  men 
of  Jabesh  send  round  to  their  countrymen  in  the 
hope  of  finding  allies  to  save  them  from  the  brutality 
of  Nahash.  According  to  the  second  account,  Saul  is 
chosen  by  lot  in  a  public  assembly  of  the  nation  at 
Mizpah,  and  takes  over  the  government  when  Samuel 
lays  down  his  office  in  a  touching  farewell  address 
to  the  people. 

Now  in  the  light  of  modern  principles  of  discrim- 
22 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

ination  of  sources,  it  is  clear  that  we  have  here  two 
different  accounts  of  the  estabUshment  of  the  mon- 
archy, derived  from  different  sources  and  pieced 
together  by  a  compiler,  who,  according  to  the  method 
of  Oriental  historiographers  and  mediaeval  chron- 
iclers, compiled  his  history  by  combining  the  docu- 
ments or  traditions  to  which  he  had  access,  instead 
of  digesting  their  contents,  and  writing  an  entirely 
fresh  narrative.  He  does  not  study  logical  consist- 
ency, or  attempt  to  remove  the  discrepancies,  save 
by  some  few  editorial  additions,  which  serve  to 
some  extent  to  unite  the  narratives  and  to  conceal 
their  mutual  inconsistency.  We  may  attempt  to 
reconcile  the  narratives;  it  is  possible  that  if  we  had 
all  the  facts  before  us  we  could  do  so :  but  is  it  not 
better  frankly  to  acknowledge  that  we  have  here  two 
accounts  of  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy, 
written  from  different  points  of  view  ?  The  first 
account  gives  an  ancient  tradition  of  the  origin  of 
the  monarchy  in  the  urgent  need  of  Israel  for  a 
deliverer.  From  one  point  of  view  the  monarchy 
was  necessary,  in  order  to  weld  the  tribes  together 
and  enable  them  to  shew  a  united  front  to  their 
enemies.  In  view  of  the  actual  circumstances  of  the 
nation,  it  was  God's  will  that  Israel  should  have  a 
king.  The  second  account  contains  a  later  prophetic 
reflection  on  the  estabUshment  of  the  monarchy. 
From  another  point  of  view  it  was  wrong  for  Israel 
to  wish  for  a  king.     It  was  a  declension  from  the 

23 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

ideal  of  theocracy,  the  direct  government  of  the 
nation  by  Jehovah.  This  reflection,  instead  of  being 
thrown  into  the  form  of  an  abstract  discussion,  was 
expressed  in  the  concrete  form  of  a  historical  narra- 
tive. The  compiler  combined  the  two  narratives, 
leaving  his  readers  to  draw  the  lessons.  On  the  one 
hand  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy  was  an 
evidence  of  God's  care  for  his  people.  Saul  was 
divinely  raised  up  and  divinely  appointed.  On  the 
other  hand  the  desire  of  the  Israelites  for  a  king 
"that  they  might  be  like  other  nations"  was  an  indi- 
cation of  distrust  of  God  and  failure  to  rise  to  the 
height  of  their  pecuhar  position  as  a  nation  distinct 
from  the  nations  of  the  world.  Each  of  the  accounts 
presents  an  idea  which  it  is  important  we  should 
grasp  in  order  to  have  a  true  view  of  the  course  and 
meaning  of  the  history  of  Israel.  It  may  be  that  the 
first  and  older  narrative  is  true  historically  in  the 
narrower  sense  of  agreement  with  the  facts  as  they 
actually  happened;  while  the  second  and  later  narra- 
tive is  equally  true  historically  in  the  wider  sense  of 
a  true  comment  on  the  facts  in  the  light  of  the 
ideal  Divine  purpose.  That  the  ideal  as  well  as  the 
actual  should  be  expressed  in  the  form  of  a  narrative 
is  due  to  the  "realising"  genius  of  the  Hebrew 
mind,  I  mean  its  tendency  to  embody  ideas  in  a 
concrete  historical  form. 

IV. — Literary  traditions  must  be  tested  by  internal 
evidence,  and  if  internal  evidence  clearly  contradicts 

24 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

the  traditions  of  an  uncritical  age,  they  must  give 
way  before  it.  The  most  obvious  instance  is  the 
later  part  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  If  Isaiah  xl.  to 
xlviii.  (I  do  not  include  chapters  xlix.  to  Ixvi.  because 
they  present  greater  difficulties)  had  come  down  to 
us  as  a  detached  and  anonymous  prophecy,  we  could 
have  had  no  hesitation  in  dating  it  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  Babylonian  Exile,  when  Cyrus  had 
already  embarked  on  his  career  of  conquest,  but 
before  Babylon  had  opened  its  gates  to  him.  In- 
ternal evidence  is  often  precarious  and  inconclusive, 
but  in  this  particular  case  the  cumulative  weight  of 
the  arguments  from  historical  allusions,  Hterary  style, 
and  theological  contents,  tells  irresistibly  against  the 
authorship  and  age  of  Isaiah,  and  in  favour  of  the 
age  of  the  Exile.  The  significance  of  the  prophecy 
gains  enormously  by  the  transference,  and  our  know- 
ledge of  the  circumstances  of  the  exiles  is  largely 
extended. 

V. — There  are  two  arguments  urged  against  the 
legitimacy  and  the  validity  of  criticism,  about  which  I 
wish  to  say  a  few  words.  They  are  the  arguments  of 
(a)  novelty,  and  (Z>)  authority. 

(a)  It  is  not  uncommonly  urged  that  critical  views 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  untrustworthy,  because 
they  are  new.  They  are  spoken  of  as  "unproved 
hypotheses,  resting  on  no  further  proof  than  was 
available  to  all  the  scholars  of  the  past  nineteen 
centuries."     The  argument  is  one  which  would  con- 

25 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

demn  all  progress.  Why  was  not  the  heliocentric 
theory  of  the  solar  system  discovered  before  Coper- 
nicus ?  Why  had  so  many  great  discoveries  and  in- 
ventions to  wait  till  the  nineteenth  century  ?  Were 
not  human  brains  as  fertile  in  earlier  ages  ?  But 
here  is  what  a  recognised  authority  on  the  study  of 
History  tells  us  : — 

"Many  centuries  and  whole  eras  of  brilliant  civil- 
isation had  to  pass  away  before  the  first  dawn  of 
criticism  was  visible  among  the  most  intellectual 
peoples  in  the  world.  Neither  the  Orientals  nor  the 
Middle  Ages  ever  formed  a  definite  conception  of  it. 
Up  to  our  own  day  there  have  been  enlightened  men 
who,  in  employing  documents  for  the  purpose  of 
writing  history,  have  neglected  the  most  elementary 
precautions,  and  unconsciously  assumed  false  gen- 
eralisations .  .  .  For  criticism  is  antagonistic  to  the 
normal  bent  of  the  mind."*  The  critical  spirit  is, 
you  see,  a  modern  instrument  even  in  its  application 
to  history  generally.  But  further  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  until  quite  recent  times  the  study  of  the 
Bible  has  been  pursued  under  the  domination  of  a 
rigid  theory  of  verbal  inspiration.  It  is  only  within 
the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  that  we  have  broken 
loose  from  its  trammels,  and  realised  that  it  is 
inconsistent  with  facts,  and  that  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel  is  not  dependent  upon  it. 

*  Langlois  and  Seignobos,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  History^ 
p.  68. 

26 


LEGITIMACY   OF  CRITICISM 

(b)  A  second  and  more  serious  argument  against 
the  legitimacy  of  criticism  is  that  of  the  authority  of 
the  New  Testament.  Our  Lord  Himself,  it  is  urged, 
sanctioned  what  may  be  called  the  "traditional" 
view  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  by  implication  at 
any  rate,  condemned  the  critical  view.  I  fully  recog- 
nise that  here  we  enter  on  difficult  and  delicate 
ground.  I  have  the  greatest  respect  for  those  who 
shrink  from  anything  which  seems  to  detract  from 
our  Lord's  authority.  But  in  condescending  to  be- 
come incarnate  as  a  Jew  at  a  particular  epoch  in  a 
particular  country  our  Lord  necessarily  accepted 
conditions  and  limitations  of  time  and  place.  Doubt- 
less in  virtue  of  the  universality  of  His  humanity  He 
transcended  those  conditions  so  that  He  is  equally 
in  sympathy  with  every  age  and  every  race.  But  He 
must  speak  and  teach  in  Aramaic,  the  vernacular  of 
Palestine.*  He  must  use  the  terminology  of  the  time 
in  regard  to  physical  phenomena.  Must  He  not  have 
used  it  also  in  regard  to  the  Old  Testament  ?  The 
questions  which  are  raised  by  modern  criticism  were 
not  before  Him,  any  more  than  the  questions  which 
are  raised  by  modern  science. 

I  would  ask  anyone  who  feels  the  difficulty,  to 
examine  very  carefully  what  is  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  New  Testament  use  and  endorsement  of  the 
Old  Testament.  What  is  it  that  our  Lord  and  His 
Apostles  guarantee  ?  Our  Lord  certainly  taught  that 
*  See  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible ^  v.,  p.  5. 
27 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  in  their  threefold 
division  of  Law,  Prophets,  and  Writings,  testified  of 
Him.  By  their  use  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
not  less  than  by  actual  statement,  the  Apostles 
shewed  that  they  believed  them  to  be  profitable  for 
doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  instruction  in  righteousness. 
But  the  freedom  with  which  they  quoted  them,  and 
the  simple  fact  that  they  generally  made  use  of  the 
Septuagint  Version,  shew  that  it  is  the  general  spirit 
and  drift  of  the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  which 
is  endorsed,  and  not  every  fact  or  statement  therein 
contained.  No  one  would  now  maintain  that  because 
Evangelists  and  Apostles  for  the  most  part  use 
the  Septuagint  they  therefore  endorse  all  the  blun- 
ders of  that  Version.  While  I  believe  most  firmly 
that  the  New  Testament  recognises  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  "an  essential  part  of  the  Christian  Bible," 
I  cannot  believe  that  its  interpretation  is  to  be 
limited  by  what  was  known  or  was  possible  in  the 
Apostolic  age. 

VI.  I  can  only  speak  most  briefly  of  the  second 
force  which  I  mentioned  as  affecting  our  study  of  the 
Old  Testament, — the  doctrine  of  development.  "The 
world  is  not  yet  alive,"  writes  Prof.  Bury  in  the  In- 
augural Lecture  (p.  19)  to  which  I  have  already  re- 
ferred, "to  the  full  importance  of  the  transformation 
of  history  (as  part  of  a  wider  transformation)  which 
is  being  brought  about  by  the  doctrine  of  develop- 
ment."    Nowhere,  perhaps,  has  this  idea  of  gradual, 

28 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

orderly  development,  of  continuous  evolution,  had 
more  influence  than  in  remodelling  our  conceptions 
of  the  course  of  Old  Testament  history  and  the 
growth  of  Old  Testament  religion.  But  it  may  be 
urged  that  the  acknowledgment  of  evolution  in  the 
history  of  the  Old  Testament  leads  to  mere  natural- 
ism, and  the  denial  of  the  reality  of  revelation.  "Is 
the  ethical  code  of  the  Bible  complete  and  final  and 
perfect  ?"  asks  Blatchford  in  God  and  my  Neighbour 
(p.  19).  "No.  The  ethical  code  of  the  Bible  gradually 
developes  and  improves.  Had  it  been  divine  it  would 
have  been  perfect  from  the  first.  It  is  because  it 
is  human  that  it  developes.  As  the  prophets  and  the 
poets  of  the  Jews  grew  wiser  and  gentler  and  more 
enlightened,  so  the  revelation  of  God  grew  wiser  and 
gentler  with  them.  Now,  God  would  know  from  the 
beginning;  but  men  would  have  to  learn.  Therefore 
the  Bible  writings  would  appear  to  be  human  and 
not  divine."  Such  language  sounds  plausible  perhaps 
to  the  class  to  which  it  is  addressed.  I  pass  over  the 
astounding  assumptions  upon  which  it  is  based.  But 
when  we  look  at  the  history  of  that  evolution,  and 
mark  how  religion  progressed  by  and  in  spite  of  a 
constant  conflict  between  the  higher  and  lower  ten- 
dencies in  the  nation,  we  are  compelled  to  ask.  What 
was  the  power  that  taught  Israel  ?  What  made  Israel 
differ  from  surrounding  nations  closely  related  to  it, 
and  speaking  almost  an  identical  language  ?  What 
kept  Israel  from  being  absorbed  by  the  Canaanites, 

29 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

who  were  superior  to  them  in  strength,  and  more 
advanced  in  civilisation  ?  The  Christian  answer  is 
the  true  one : — that  the  progress  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  not  merely  an  inevitable  evolution  of 
human  thought,  a  natural  advance  in  knowledge  and 
morahty,  but  an  evolution  of  human  thought  and  an 
advance  in  knowledge  and  morality  under  the  con- 
straint of  a  divine  discipline  and  the  education  of  a 
progressive  revelation.  The  claim  of  the  leaders  and 
prophets  of  Israel  to  be  representatives  and  spokes- 
men of  God  was  not  baseless.  It  is  attested  by 
the  results  which  culminate  in  the  Incarnation  and 
Christianity. 

VII.  Critical  methods  are  a  means,  not  an  end. 
Their  object  is  to  provide  the  material  for  rightly 
understanding  documents,  for  constructing  history 
and  formulating  theology.  The  restoration  of  texts, 
the  determination  of  their  dates,  and  the  analysis  of 
their  sources,  are  not  the  final  object  of  the  student's 
labour.  It  is  useful  work,  it  is  attractive  work,  but 
it  is  not  the  highest  work.  What  we  want  to  know 
is  by  what  steps  and  in  what  way  God  revealed  His 
will  to  ancient  Israel,  prepared  the  way  for  the  Incar- 
nation, laid  deeply  and  surely  the  foundations  upon 
which  the  Catholic  Church  was  to  be  built.  The 
more  difficult  task  of  synthesis  and  interpretation 
is  the  real  aim  of  the  historian  and  the  theologian. 

Again,  it  is  doubtless  easy  to  exaggerate  the  appli- 
cation  of   the    principle   of   development.     The   late 

30 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson  was  a  master  of  Old  Testament 
Theology,  and  this  is  what  his  friend  and  editor,  Dr. 
Salmond,  gives  as  his  opinion: — 

"He  had  an  increasing  distrust  of  ambitious  at- 
tempts to  fix  the  date  of  every  separate  piece  of 
the  Hebrew  literature,  and  link  the  ideas  in  their 
several  measures  of  immaturity  and  maturity  with 
the  writings  as  thus  arranged.  He  became  more  and 
more  convinced  that  there  was  no  solid  basis  for  such 
confident  chronological  dispositions  of  the  writings 
and  juxtapositions  of  the  beliefs.  In  his  judgment 
the  only  result  of  endeavours  of  this  kind  was  to  give 
an  entirely  fictitious  view  of  the  ideas,  in  their  rela- 
tive degrees  of  definiteness,  the  times  at  which  they 
emerged  or  came  to  certainty,  and  the  causes  that 
worked  to  their  origin  and  development.  The  most 
that  we  had  scientific  warrant  to  do,  in  view  of  the 
materials  available  for  the  purpose,  was,  in  his 
opinion,  to  take  the  history  in  large  tracts  and 
the  literature  in  a  few  broad  divisions,  and  study 
the  beliefs  and  the  deliverances  in  connexion  with 
them."* 

VIII.  Dr.  Davidson's  words  lead  up  to  the 
thoughts  with  which  I  wish  to  conclude.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  the  Old 
Testament   as    it    stands    was    the   Apostolic    Bible, 

*  Preface  to  Professor  Davidson's  Theology  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment [\^o\),  p.  vi.  It  must,  however,  be  remembered  that  Professor 
Davidson  fully  accepted  the  main  conclusions  of  criticism.  See 
pp.  \^  ff.  oi  the  same  volume. 

31 


THE  INEVITABLENESS  AND 

which  is  commended  to  us  for  our  study.  I  accept 
it  as  "inspired,"  though  I  do  not  venture  to  define 
the  nature  and  hmits  of  inspiration.  I  am  content 
to  believe  that  the  composition,  editing,  and  col- 
lection of  the  books  which  it  contains  were  divinely 
controlled  in  order  to  adapt  it  for  its  purpose,  to 
shew  us  God  working  in  the  world,  to  furnish  spir- 
itual light  and  comfort  to  the  Church  for  all  time. 

On  the  other  hand  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  Old 
Testament  must  be  interpreted  in  successive  ages 
by  the  help  of  all  new  light  and  knowledge  which 
God  gives  mankind.  The  great  fundamental  truths 
remain  the  same:  our  comprehension  of  the  stages 
and  methods  by  which  God  revealed  them  may 
change.  Criticism  may  enable  us  to  understand  the 
stages  of  revelation  better,  to  trace  the  growth  of 
religious  thought  more  exactly,  but  the  great  truths 
are  the  really  important  matter.  The  light  and  heat 
and  attraction  of  the  sun  are  facts,  independent  of 
theories  as  to  the  origin  and  composition  of  the  sun 
and  the  action  of  gravitation.  Only  the  truths  must 
not  be  affirmed  or  expounded  in  such  a  way  as  to 
contradict  what  criticism  can  demonstrate  with  a 
reasonable  degree  of  probability. 

The  critic  no  doubt  often  forgets  the  true  purpose 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  authority  by  which 
it  has  been  accredited  to  us.  The  anti-critic  on  the 
other  hand  too  often  assumes  that  the  Bible  is  what 
it  never  claims  to  be,  infallibly  accurate  in  all  mat- 

32 


LEGITIMACY  OF  CRITICISM 

ters  of  fact  and  science.  He  will  have  all  or  nothing. 
I  tremble  when  I  read  such  words  as  these:  "If  the 
Gospels  are  not  inspired  in  the  strictest  sense  in 
which  theologians  speak  of  inspiration,  these  records 
[viz.,  of  our  Lord's  discourses]  are  worthless;"*  or 
when  I  find  defenders  of  the  faith  making  the  peril- 
ous assumption  that  we  must  proceed  on  the  old 
traditional  lines,  or  else  abandon  the  foundations  of 
the  Gospel  and  the  sanction  of  its  message  for  the 
redemption  of  mankind. 

Courage,  not  cowardice,  is  the  true  child  of  faith; 
boldness,  not  bigotry,  is  the  best  bulwark  of  the 
truth. 


*  Anderson,  The  Bible  and  Modern  Criticism,  p.  i8. 
33 


The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of 
To-Day. 


III. 

THE    OLD    TESTAMENT    IN    THE    LIGHT    OF 
TO-DAY.* 

THE  subject  on  which  I  propose  to  speak  to-night 
is  "The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  To-day." 
The  subject  is  a  wide  one,  and  there  are  aspects  of 
it  on  which  naturally  I  can  only  touch  in  passing,  or 
which  I  may  even  have  to  pass  by  altogether;  but 
it  seemed  to  me  to  be  one  that  would  embrace  points 
of  view  which  might  be  suitably  considered  upon  an 
occasion  which  suggested  rather  naturally  a  compari- 
son of  the  present  with  the  past.  We  are  standing 
at  the  end  of  a  century  which  has  been  marked, 
almost  more  than  any  other,  by  a  great  intellectual 
awakening,  and  which  certainly  more  than  any  other 
has  been  fruitful  in  great  discoveries.  Sciences  which 
a  hundred  years  ago  were  practically  non-existent 
have  now  arrived  at  a  vigorous  and  independent 
manhood;  the  observation  of  nature  in  all  its  de- 
partments has  been  pursued  with  indefatigable  in- 
dustry and  skill,  and  lines  of  investigation,  once  un- 
worked,  have  been  opened  up,  and  have  been  found 

*  An  address  delivered  in  connection  with  the  Jubilee  of  the 
New  College,  Hampstead,  on  Wednesday,  November  7,  1900 ; 
and  reprinted  here  from  the  Expositor,  January,  1901,  p.  27  ff. 

37 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

often  to  conduct  to  startling  and  unexpected  results. 
And  the  methods  which  in  all  these  studies  have  been 
productive  of  solid  results  have  been  these — the  sys-» 
tematic  and  all-sided  observation  of  facts,  the  shrink- 
ing from  no  labour  or  pains  to  solve  a  difficulty  or 
account  for  what  was  not  fully  understood,  the  bring- 
ing to  bear  upon  a  new  subject  whatever  light  or 
illustration  might  be  available  from  other  quarters, 
the  endeavour  to  correlate,  and  subsume  under  gen- 
eral laws,  the  new  facts  discovered.  Advance  con- 
ducted upon  lines  such  as  these  has  been  most 
marked  throughout  the  century.  It  may  have  been 
most  conspicuous  and  brilliant  in  the  physical 
sciences  and  in  the  great  mechanical  arts  based  upon 
them;  but  it  has  been  not  less  real  in  many  other 
branches  of  knowledge,  in  language,  in  history,  in 
archaeology,  in  anthropology.  How  much,  in  all 
these  departments  of  knowledge,  is  known  now,  which 
a  century  ago  was  unknown,  and  even  unsuspected! 
How  much  more  familiar  are  we  now,  for  instance, 
not  only  with  the  languages,  but  also  with  the  habits 
and  institutions,  and  art  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans! 
How  many  dark  points  in  their  history  and  anti- 
quities have  been  cleared  up  by  the  numerous  in- 
scriptions that  have  been  found  and  pubUshed  during 
recent  years!  Even  since  these  last  lines  were  writ- 
ten* news  has  arrived  of  remarkable  discoveries  at 
Cnossus,  in  Crete,  which  promise  in  some  respects 
*  In  1900. 

38 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

to  revolutionize  former  ideas  of  the  early  character 
and  history  of  Greek  civilization.  On  these  and  other 
subjects  we  owe  our  enlarged  knowledge,  partly  to 
the  discovery  of  new  materials,  partly  to  the  appli- 
cation to  old  materials  of  more  exact  and  systematic 
methods  of  inquiry.  The  facts  of  nature  lay  before 
our  forefathers  as  fully  as  they  lie  before  ourselves; 
yet  how  strangely  they  failed  to  elicit  from  them  the 
secrets  hidden  within  them  I  The  great  master- 
pieces of  Greek  literature  were  all  familiar  to  the 
scholars  of  the  sixteenth  century;  and  yet  some  of 
the  most  serious  blots  on  the  Authorized  Version 
of  the  New  Testament  are  due  to  the  translators' 
ignorance  of  some  quite  elementary  principles  of 
Greek  syntax!*  But  the  same  spirit  of  scientific 
study  and  research  which  has  inspired  new  life  into 
so  many  other  departments  of  knowledge,  and  even 
in  some  instances  created  them  altogether,  has  also 
pervaded  Biblical  and  Oriental  learning;  and  there 
is  hardly  any  branch  of  these  subjects,  whether  lan- 
guage^  or  literature,  or  antiquities,  or  history,  in 
which  the  stimulus  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  not 
made  itself  felt,  and  in  which  improved  methods  of 
investigation  have  not  conducted  to  new  and  im- 
portant results. 

I  may  assume  on  the  part  of  those  who  hear  me  a 

*  See,  for  illustrations,  Professor  (afterwards  Bishop)  Light- 
foot's  illuminative  volume  On  a  Fresh  Revision  of  the  English 
New  Testament — a  book  which,  though  published  in  1871,  is  still 
full  of  instruction,  and  in  no  respect  antiquated. 

39 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

general  familiarity  with  the  new  light  in  which,  to 
those  who  do  not  refuse  to  open  their  eyes,  the  Old 
Testament  appears  to-day.  The  historical  books 
are  now  seen  to  be  not,  as  was  once  supposed,  the 
works  (for  instance)  of  Moses,  or  Joshua,  or  Samuel. 
They  are  seen  to  present  a  multiplicity  of  pheno- 
mena which  cannot  be  accounted  for,  or  reasonably 
explained,  except  upon  the  supposition  that  they 
came  into  existence  gradually;  that  they  are  com- 
piled out  of  the  writings  of  distinct  and  independ- 
ent authors,  characterized  by  different  styles  and 
representing  different  points  of  view,  which  were 
combined  together  and  otherwise  adjusted,  till  they 
finally  assumed  their  present  form.  The  various 
documents  thus  brought  to  light  reveal,  further,  such 
mutual  differences  that  in  many  cases  they  can  no 
longer  be  held  to  be  the  work  of  contemporary  wri- 
ters, or  to  spring,  as  used  to  be  thought,  from  a 
single  generation :  in  the  Pentateuch,  especially,  the 
groups  of  laws  contained  in  the  different  strata  of 
narrative  differ  in  such  a  way  that  they  can  only 
be  supposed  to  have  been  codified  at  widely  differ- 
ent periods  of  the  national  life,  to  the  history  and 
literature  of  which  they  correspond,  and  the  prin- 
ciples dominant  in  which  they  accurately  reflect. 
Three  well-defined  stages  in  literature,  legislation, 
and  history  thus  disclose  themselves.  Nor  is  this 
all.  Archaeology  and  anthropology,  two  sciences 
which  seventy  years  ago  were  completely  in  their  in- 

40 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

fancy,  come  to  our  aid,  and  cast  upon  the  Biblical 
history  illuminative  side-lights.  Some  progress  had 
indeed  been  made  seventy  years  ago  in  unravelling 
from  the  hieroglyphics  the  history  and  antiquities  of 
ancient  Egypt ;  but  the  cuneiform  records  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria  refused  still  to  yield  up  their 
secrets.  But  Edward  Hincks  had  already  taken  some 
important  steps  towards  their  decipherment;  and 
Henry  Layard's  Nineveh  and  its  Remains,  which 
appeared  in  1849,  ^^d  excited  at  once  the  liveliest 
interest,  told  eloquently  of  a  magnificent  and  im- 
posing civilization  which,  though  as  yet  all  but  silent, 
was  destined  before  long  to  be  again  vocal.  Major 
(afterwards  Sir  Henry)  Rawlinson's  great  discoveries 
speedily  followed;  and  from  1851  to  the  present  day 
the  stream  of  light  which  has  poured  from  the 
mounds  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  upon  the  Eastern 
world  has  flowed  unintermittently.  The  history  and 
antiquities  of  two  great  civilizations,  each,  in  a 
different  way,  having  interesting  links  of  connexion 
with  Israel,  are  now  revealed  to  us — not,  certainly, 
in  their  completeness;  for  that  we  must  wait  still  for 
many  years  to  come — but,  nevertheless,  in  sufficient 
measure  to  enable  us  to  estimate  without  serious 
error  their  magnitude  and  character,  and  to  under- 
stand the  nature  of  the  influence  exerted  by  them 
upon  Israel.  If  not,  on  the  whole,  so  epoch-making 
and  surprising  in  their  results  as  these  two  splendid 
achievements  of  modern  genius  and  industry,  the  dis- 

41 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

covery  and  publication  of  inscriptions  from  Phoenicia, 
Syria,  Moab,  and  Arabia,  and  the  observations  of 
travellers  and  explorers  in  the  same  regions,  have 
in  many  important  details  augmented  our  former 
knowledge  of  the  customs,  and  institutions,  and 
habits  of  thought  of  Israel's  neighbours,  helping  us 
thereby  to  realize  more  accurately  the  position  taken 
by  Israel  amongst  them,  and  the  affinities,  mental 
not  less  than  physical  and  material,  subsisting  be- 
tween them.  The  net  result  of  these  discoveries  is 
that  the  ancient  Hebrews  are  taken  out  of  the  isola- 
tion in  which,  as  a  nation,  they  formerly  seemed  to 
stand;  and  it  is  seen  now  that  many  of  their  institu- 
tions and  beliefs  were  not  pecuhar  to  themselves; 
they  existed  in  more  or  less  similar  form  among  their 
neighbours;  they  were  only  in  Israel  developed  in 
special  directions,  subordinated  to  special  ends,  and 
made  the  vehicle  of  special  ideas.* 

Archaeology  has  also  often  a  more  direct  bearing 
upon  the  Old  Testament :  it  has  made  a  series  of 
most    valuable    additions    to    our   knowledge,    some- 

*  In  support  of  the  statements  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  the 
writer  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  his  essay,  illustrative  of  the 
light  shed  by  archaeology  upon  the  Old  Testament,  in  Hogarth's 
Authority  and  ArchcBology  (1899),  pp.  1-152.  The  code  of 
Hammurabi,  king  of  Babylon,— most  probably  about  2 131-2088 
B.C. — had  not  been  discovered  when  this  essay  was  written  ;  but 
the  general  conclusions  expressed  in  the  essay  are  not  affected 
by  it.  On  the  early  history  of  the  decipherment  of  the  cunei- 
form inscriptions  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  see  the  present 
writer's  "  Schweich  Lectures  "  on  Modern  Reseaj'ch  as  illustrat- 
ing the  Bible  (1909),  pp.  4-7.     Lectures  II.  and  III.  in  this  volume 

42 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

times  supporting,  sometimes  correcting,  sometimes 
supplementing,  the  Biblical  data.  What,  for  instance, 
can  be  more  stimulating  and  welcome  to  the  student 
than  the  Moabite  king's  own  detailed  account  of 
an  event  dismissed  in  a  single  verse  in  the  Kings  ? 
or  the  Assyrian  king's  own  narrative  of  the  entire 
campaign  in  which  the  Rabshakeh's  mission  to 
Jerusalem  forms,  as  we  now  understand,  a  single 
episode  ?  or  the  particulars,  recounted  by  a  contem- 
porary, if  not  by  an  eye-witness,  of  Cyrus'  conquest 
of  Babylon  ?*  The  importance  to  Biblical  history  of 
newly-recovered  facts  such  as  these  I  cannot  now 
pause  to  develop :  I  will  merely,  before  I  pass  on, 
remind  you  of  the  very  important  light  which  has 
been  thrown  by  archaeology  upon  the  early  chapters 
of  Genesis.  The  monuments  of  Egypt  and  Babylon 
combine  to  establish  the  presence  of  man  upon 
the  earth,  and  the  existence  of  entirely  distinct 
languages,  at  periods  considerably  more  ancient 
than  is  allowed  for  by  the  figures  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis;  and  the  tablets  brought  from  the  library  of 
Asshurbanipal  have  disclosed  to  us  the  source  of  the 

contain  an  account  of  the  light  thrown  upon  Canaan  by  recent 
excavations,  especially  those  at  Gezer. 

On  the  code  of  Hammurabi,  see,  briedy,  p.  20  f.  in  these 
lectures  ;  more  fully  Johns,  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 
vol.  v.,  pp.  584-612  (including  a  translation  of  the  entire  code); 
also,  in  its  bearing  on  early  Hebrew  law,  the  present  writer's 
Exodus  (in  the  Ca?nb?'idge  Bible  for  Schools  a?id  Colleges), 
pp.  205,  418  ff. 

*See  Hogarth,  op.  cit.,  pp.  89-90,  105-107,  124-5,  ^28. 

43 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

material  elements  upon  which  the  BibHcal  narratives 
of  the  Creation  and  the  Deluge  have  been  con-» 
structed.*  A  clearer  indication  that  in  the  early 
chapters  of  Genesis  we  are  not  reading  literal  his- 
tory could  hardly  be  found;  and  we  see  archaeology 
supporting  criticism  in  pressing  upon  theologians 
and  apologists  the  urgent  need  of  a  revision  of  cur- 
rent opinions  respecting  parts  of  the  Old  Testament 
narrative. 

If  we  turn  to  the  prophets  and  poetical  books,  we 
find,  similarly,  that  they  also  have  in  many  respects 
received  new  light  from  the  studies  of  the  past  cen- 
tury. Prophecy  is  no  longer  defined,  as  it  was  once 
by  a  celebrated  and  still  justly  honoured  divine,  as 
"the  history  of  events  before  they  come  to  pass."t 

*  Cf.  Dr.  F.  Watson,  at  the  Church  Congress,  held  in  1900  at 
Newcastle  :  the  material  elements  in  the  Creation-narrative 
were  derived  from  '•  ancient  traditions,  not  the  peculiar  treasure 
of  the  chosen  people,  but  traditions  current  amongst  the 
nations  in  that  plain  of  Babylonia,  which  the  Bible  describes  as 
the  aboriginal  home  of  the  human  race  "  [Report  of  the  Newcastle 
Cong?-ess,  p.  153).  See  for  details  the  articles  '•  Cosmogony,"  by 
Principal  Whitehouse,  and  "  Flood,"  by  the  Rev.  F.  H.Woods,  in 
H^LSixngs  Dictionary  of  the  Bible;  Ball's  Light  from  the  East, 
pp.  1-15, 34-41  ;  Authority  and  Ai'chcBology,  pp.  g-27,  32-34  ;  or  the 
present  writer's  Book  of  Genesis  (ed.  8,  191 1).  pp.  27  ff.,  103  ff. 

t  Butler's  Analogy,  part  ii.,  chap,  vii.,  §  3,  6th  paragraph.  See 
for  the  correction  of  this  definition  Kirkpatrick's  Doctrine  of  the 
Prophets,  ch.  i.,  esp.  p.  15  f.  There  is  often  a  large  poetical,  or 
imaginative,  element  in  the  prophecy,  to  which  nothing  corre- 
sponds in  the  fulfilment,  the  fulfilment  being  limited  to  the 
substance  of  the  prophecy, — whether,  as  the  case  may  be,  this  is 
spiritual  {eg.,  Is.  ii.  2,  3),  or  material  [e.g.,  Is.  x.  33,  34  ;  xxx.  32, 
33).  See  the  writer's  Isaiah,  his  Life  a7id  Titnes,  in  the  "Men  of 
the  Bible"  series,  pp.  61,  73,  94-5,  106,  111-14,  146  note,  167. 

44 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

More  careful  and  exact  exegesis,  a  truer  appreciation 
of  the  aim  and  object  set  by  the  prophet  to  himself, 
the  study  of  his  writings  in  the  light  of  history, 
especially  with  the  help  of  the  new  materials  afforded 
by  the  inscriptions  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  have 
shown  what  the  prophets  primarily  were:  they  were 
primarily  the  teachers  of  their  own  generation :  they 
spoke  out  of  the  circumstances  of  their  own  age;  it 
was  the  political  mistakes,  the  social  abuses,  the 
moral  shortcomings  of  their  own  contemporaries 
which  it  was  their  primary  object  to  correct;  their 
predictions  of  national  deliverance  or  disaster,  their 
broader  ideal  delineations  of  a  future  age  of  moral 
and  material  blessedness,  all  start  from  their  own 
present,  and  are  conditioned  by  the  historical  en- 
vironment in  which  they  moved.  Nor  does  their 
theological  teaching  stand  all  upon  the  same  plane. 
It  is  adapted  to  the  spiritual  capacities  of  those  to 
whom  it  is  addressed;  a  progress  is  in  many  cases 
discernible  in  it;  and  the  rise  and  development  of 
new  truths  can  be  traced  in  their  writings. 

Mutatis  mutandis,  what  has  been  said  holds  good 
of  the  poetical  books.  Their  connexion  with  the 
names  with  which  they  are  traditionally  associated 
must  be  almost  uniformly  abandoned;  in  some  cases 
language,  in  others  contents  and  character,  impera- 
tively demand  this.  The  poetical  books  are  seen 
now  in  fact  to  have  a  much  wider  significance  than 
they  would  have  had,   if  they  had  been,  as  largely 

45 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

AS  tradition  asserts,  the  work  of  David  and  Solomon 
alone;  they  reflect  in  singularly  striking  and  attract- 
ive forms,  springing  out  of  the  varied  experiences 
of  many  men  and  many  ages,  different  phases  of  the 
national  religious  life;  in  the  Psalms  we  hear  Israel's 
religious  meditations,  in  the  Proverbs  the  maxims 
of  practical  philosophy  which  its  sages  formulated, 
in  Job  and  Ecclesiastes  ponderings  on  the  problems 
of  life,  in  the  Song  of  Songs  an  idyllic  picture  of 
faithful  Hebrew  love. 

In  what  I  have  said  I  have  indicated  in  outline — 
for  details  on  an  occasion  such  as  the  present  are 
obviously  impossible — the  general  character  of  the 
new  light  in  which  the  Old  Testament  now  appears; 
and  I  propose  to  devote  the  remainder  of  my  time 
to  considering  three  questions:  (i)  How  do  the  facts 
I  have  referred  to  bear  upon  the  inspiration  of  the 
Old  Testament  ?  (2)  How  do  they  affect  the  estim- 
ate which  we  form  of  its  moral  and  doctrinal  value  ? 
(3)  What  practical  conclusions  may  be  deduced 
from  them  ?  And  the  principle  which,  in  answering 
these  questions,  I  desire  to  emphasize  is  the  exist- 
ence of  a  double  element  in  Scripture,  a  human  not 
less  than  a  Divine  element,  and  the  extreme  import- 
ance, in  view  of  the  new  knowledge  which  the  pre^ 
sent  day  has  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Bible,  of 
recognizing  both  of  these.  An  intelligible  but  mis- 
taken reverence  often  prevents  religious  people  from 
recognising  properly  the  human  element  in  the  Bible; 

46 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

and  I  wish  to  show  how  it  is  that  the  interests  both 
of  truth  and  of  rehgion  demand  that  the  reahty  of 
this  element  should  not  be  overlooked. 

(i)  With  regard  to  the  first  of  these  questions,  it 
is,  I  think,  convenient  to  start  with  the  formularies 
of  the  Church  to  which  we  individually  belong.  I 
naturally  here  speak  primarily  from  the  point  of  view 
of  my  own  communion;  but  I  believe  that  what  I 
am  about  to  say  will  be  in  accordance  also  with  the 
formularies  of  those  whom  I  am  addressing.  The 
formularies,  both  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
(unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken)  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Churches  as  well,*  permit,  in  regard  to 
inspiration,  considerable  freedom  of  individual 
opinion:  they  affirm  the  Scriptures  to  be  of  supreme 
authority  in  matters  of  faith;  they  specify  certain 
doctrines,  which  they  declare  to  be  contained  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  to  be  the  means  of  salvation;  but 
they  include  no  definition  of  inspiration:  and  while 
they  define  the  books  of  which  the  Old  Testament 
consists,  they  express  no  theory  respecting  either 
its  literary  structure,  or  the  manner  in  which 
the  Divine  Will  was  communicated  to  its  writers, 
or  the  stages  by  which,  historically,  revelation 
advanced. 

The  term  inspiration  is   derived,   of  course,   from 
the  well-known  passage  in  which  St.  Paul  speaks  of 

*  See   the  "Principles    of  Religion"  of   the    Congregational 
Churches,  in  Curteis'  Ba?npto?i  Lectures  (end  of  Lect.  II), 

47 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

Scripture  as  OeoTrvevcTTog  .*  What,  however,  does  this 
term  denote  ?  or,  to  limit  the  question  to  the  point 
which  here  concerns  us,  What  are  the  necessary- 
characteristics  of  a  writing  which  is  spoken  of  as 
"inspired"  ?  The  use  of  the  word  will  not  guide 
us;  for  it  occurs  only  in  the  passage  referred  to. 
Clearly  the  only  course  open  to  us  is  to  examine, 
patiently  and  carefully,  the  book  which  is  termed 
inspired,  and  ascertain  what  characters  attach  to  it. 
Unhappily,  a  different  course  has  often  been  followed. 
Men  have  assumed  that  they  knew,  as  it  were  in- 
tuitively, what  inspiration  meant.  They  have  framed 
theories  without  basis,  either  in  Scripture  itself  or 
in  the  definitions  of  their  Church,  as  to  the  notes,  or 
conditions  which  must  attend  it;  they  have  applied 
their  theories  forthwith  to  the  Bible,  and  have 
demanded  that  it  should  conform  to  them.  The 
theories  of  mechanical  and  verbal  inspiration  have 
indeed  been  now  largely  abandoned,  as  it  is  seen 
that  they  are  too  plainly  inconsistent  with  the  facts 
presented  by  the  Bible  itself.  But  other  theories 
still  prevalent  are  not  less  inconsistent  with  the 
facts.  It  is  often  supposed,  for  instance,  that  an  in- 
spired writing  must  be  absolutely  consistent  in  all 
its  parts,  and  free  from  all  discrepancy  or  error.  But 
the    Bible   does    not    satisfy    these    requirements.      I 

*  2  Tim.  iii.  16-17  :  "Every  scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also 
profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof,  tor  correction,  for  instruction 
[or,  discipline]  which  is  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God 
may  be  complete,  furnished  completely  unto  every  good  work." 

48 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

may  quote  here  the  words  of  a  speaker  at  the  recent 
Church  Congress :  "I  hope  I  shall  not  pain  any  one 
when  I  express  my  own  opinion  that  the  Bible  is  not 
free  from  imperfection,  error,  and  mistake  in  mat- 
ters of  fact.  Let  me  add  that  it  is  a  conclusion  to 
which  I  have  slowly  and  reluctantly  come."*  The 
Bible,  moreover,  contains  accommodations  to  an 
immature  stage  of  religious  practice  or  belief;  even 
in  the  Psalms  there  are  passages  which  cannot  be 
appropriated  by  the  followers  of  Christ.  The  Bible 
also  exhibits  other  characteristics  which  we  should 
not  antecedently  have  expected  to  find  in  it.  It  con- 
tains double  and  divergent  accounts  of  the  same 
events.  The  history  has  in  some  cases  been  com- 
mitted to  writing  a  considerable  time  after  its 
occurrence,  and  is  thus  probably  presented  to  us 
in  the  form  in  which  it  has  been  gradually  shaped  by 
tradition.  There  are  cogent  reasons  for  believing 
that  in  some  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  we  are 
not  reading  literal  history,  but  history  which  has 
been  idealized  or,  as  in  many  parts  of  the  Chronicles, 
transformed  under  the  associations  of  a  later  age.f 
Elsewhere,   again,   literary  considerations   show  that 

'*'  Report  of  the  Newcastle  Church  Congress  (1900),  p.  154. 

t  The  reference  is  to  those  narratives  of  Chronicles  which  are 
not, — like  i  Chr.  x,  i-io,  2  Chr.  x.,  lor  instance, — transcripts, 
almost  unaltered,  from  the  Books  of  Samuel,  or  Kings,  but  are 
the  Chronicler's  own  composition,  and  reflect  his  own  conception 
of  the  history.  See  the  article  on  Chronicles  in  Hastings'  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Bible  ;  or  the  present  writer's  Introduction  to  the 
Literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  493-502  (ed.  8,  pp.  525-534)- 

49 

E 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

sayings  and  discourses  are  strongly  coloured  by  the 
individuality  of  the  narrator;  the  writers  themselves 
also  afford  indications  that  they  are  subject  to  the 
limitations  of  culture  and  knowledge  imposed  by 
the  age  in  which  they  lived.  A  priori,  no  doubt,  we 
might  have  expected  these  things  to  be  otherwise; 
but  our  d.  priori  conceptions  of  the  works  and  ways 
of  God  are  apt  to  be  exceedingly  at  fault.  The  facts 
which  I  have  referred  to  should  not  surprise  us,  or 
tempt  us  to  doubt  the  authority  of  Scripture.  They 
may  help  to  refute  a  false  theory  of  inspiration; 
they  will  be  embraced  and  allowed  for  in  a  true 
theory.  They  belong  to  the  human  element  in  the 
Bible.  They  show,  that  as  inspiration  does  not 
suppress  the  individuality  of  the  Biblical  writers,  so 
it  does  not  altogether  neutralize  human  infirmities, 
or  confer  upon  those  who  have  been  its  instruments 
immunity  from  error.  As  the  writer  whom  I  have 
just  quoted  forcibly  puts  it,  "Men  argue  that  since 
the  Bible  is  God's  Word  it  must  be  free  from  all 
imperfection.  The  argument  is  equally  valid  that 
since  it  is  man's  word  it  cannot  be  thus  free."  Too 
often,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the  explanations  offered 
of  the  discrepancies  and  other  difficulties  of  the 
Old  Testament  leave  much  to  be  desired,  and  are 
adapted  to  silence  doubt  rather  than  to  satisfy  it. 
But  each  time  that  this  process  is  repeated  the 
doubt  reasserts  itself  with  fresh  strength.  What 
wonder  that  there  are  men  who,  when  they  find  that 

50 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

their  beliefs  about  the  Bible  cannot  be  sustained 
without  a  succession  of  artificial  and  improbable 
suppositions,  cast  off  the  entire  system  with  which, 
as  they  have  been  brought  up  to  believe,  these  im- 
probabilities are  inseparably  connected  ?  It  is  a 
fatal  mistake  to  approach  the  Bible  with  a  precon- 
ceived theory  of  inspiration,  or  a  theory  formed 
irrespectively  of  the  facts  which  it  is  called  upon 
to  explain.  A  theory  of  inspiration,  if  it  is  to  be 
a  sound  one,  ought  to  embrace  and  find  room  for 
all  the  characteristics  displayed  by  the  book  which 
claims  to  be  inspired. 

The  inerrancy  of  Scripture,  as  it  is  called,*  is  a 
principle  which  is  nowhere  asserted  or  claimed  in 
Scripture  itself.  It  is  a  principle  which  has  been 
framed  by  theologians,  presumably  from  a  fear  lest, 
if  no  such  principle  could  be  established,  the  author- 
ity of  Scripture  in  matters  of  doctrine  could  not  be 
sustained.  The  end  is  undoubtedly  a  sound  one; 
but  the  principle  by  which  it  is  sought  to  secure  it 
is  quite  unable  to  support  the  weight  which  is  laid 
upon  it.  In  the  past,  probably,  this  was  not  appar- 
ent, but  it  is  apparent  now.  We  cannot  honestly 
close  our  eyes  to  the  facts  contradicting  it.f  It  is 
the   facts   which   force   upon   us   the   necessity   of   a 

*  Though  the  expression  is,  perhaps,  more  famihar  in  America 
than  in  this  country.  See  Dr.  Briggs*  General  Introdtcctio7i  to 
the  Study  of  Holy  Scripture  (1^99),  p.  615  ff. 

t  Comp.  further  on  this  subject  Dr.  F.  Watson's  volume^ 
Iiispb'ation^  pubhshed  by  the  S.P.C.K.  in  1906,  p,  234  ff. 

51 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

revision  of  current  theories  of  inspiration.  It  is  true 
that,  whether  we  are  theologians  or  ordinary  Chris- 
tian men,  it  is  the  doctrines  of  Scripture  that  are  of 
importance  to  us;  it  is  the  doctrines  which  are  to 
form  our  guide  in  life,  and  our  lode-star  to  eternity. 
But  the  truth  of  these  doctrines  will  be  best  main- 
tained if  we  judge  Scripture  by  the  canons  of  ordi- 
nary historical  evidence.  It  certainly  will  not  be 
maintained  if  we  make  it  depend  upon  an  arti- 
ficial principle,  which  breaks  down  as  soon  as  it  is 
seriously  put  to  the  test.  As  I  shall  hope  to  show 
directly,  the  great  theological  verities  taught  in  the 
Old  Testament  are  absolutely  untouched  by  critical 
investigation;  while  the  documents  on  which  the 
specific  doctrines  of  Christianity  rest  are  so  different 
in  their  nature  from  those  which  are  here  concerned, 
that  criticism,  though  it  may  in  some  cases  modify 
the  idea  which  we  once  held  of  their  origin  and  struc- 
ture, leaves  the  substance  of  them  intact:  in  par- 
ticular, the  testimony  to  our  blessed  Lord's  life  and 
work  is  so  much  more  nearly  contemporary  with 
the  events  recorded  than  can  often  be  shown  to  be 
the  case  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  also  so  much 
more  varied  and  abundant,  that,  by  an  elementary 
principle  of  historical  criticism,  it  is  of  proportion- 
ately higher  value.  It  does  not  appear  to  me  that 
the  foundations  of  our  faith  are  endangered  either 
by  the  application  of  reasonable  critical  principles 
to    the    Old   Testament,    or   by    the    adoption    of   a 

52 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

theory  of  inspiration  which  shall  do  justice  to  the 
facts   that   have   to   be   accounted  for. 

(2)  I  pass  now  to  the  second  question,  viz.,  How 
do  critical  views  of  the  Old  Testament  affect  our 
estimate  of  its  moral  and  doctrinal  value  ?  As  I 
have  just  observed,  the  vital  truths  declared  in  the 
Bible  appear  to  me  to  be  wholly  unaffected  by  criti- 
cal inquiries,  or  critical  conclusions,  respecting  its 
structure :  criticism  deals  with  the  external  form, 
or  shell,  in  which  these  truths  appear,  the  truths 
themselves  lie  beyond  its  range,  and  are  not  touched 
by  it.  It  may  be  that  individual  critics  reject  some 
or  even  many  of  those  truths  which  Christians,, 
speaking  generally,  regard  as  vital;  but  that  is  not 
because  they  are  critics,  as  such,  but  because  they 
approach  the  subject  with  some  anterior  philo- 
sophical principles,  and  they  would  reject  these 
truths  whether  they  were,  in  the  technical  sense  of 
the  word,  critics  or  not.  The  Christian  critic  starts 
with  the  belief  that  the  Bible  contains  a  revelation 
of  God,  and  that  its  writers  are  inspired:  his  object 
is  not  to  deny  the  revelation  or  the  inspiration,  but 
to  ascertain,  as  far  as  possible,  the  conditions  under 
which  the  revelation  was  made,  the  stages  through 
which  it  passed,  and  the  character  and  limits  of  the 
inspiration  which  guided  the  human  agents  through 
whom  the  revelation  was  made,  or  who  recorded 
its  successive  stages.  By  inspiration  I  suppose 
we   may   understand   a   Divine   afflatus    which,    with- 

53 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

out  superseding  or  suppressing  the  human  faculties, 
but  rather  using  them  as  its  instruments,  and 
so  conferring  upon  Scripture  its  remarkable  mani- 
foldness  and  variety,  enabled  holy  men  of  old  to 
apprehend,  and  declare  in  different  degrees,  and 
in  accordance  with  the  needs  and  circumstances 
of  particular  ages  or  occasions,  the  mind  and  pur- 
pose of  God.  I  say  in  different  degrees,  for  it 
must  be  evident  that  the  Old  Testament  does  not 
in  every  part  stand  upon  the  same  moral  or  spiritual 
plane,  and  is  not  everywhere  in  the  same  measure 
the  expression  of  the  Divine  mind:  inspiration  did 
not  always,  in  precisely  the  same  degree,  lift  those 
who  were  its  agents  above  the  reach  of  human  weak- 
ness and  human  ignorance.  The  Bible  is  like  a 
lantern  with  many  sides,  some  transparent,  others 
more  or  less  opaque,  and  the  flame  burning  within 
does  not  shine  through  all  with  the  same  pure  and 
clear  brilliancy.*  Or,  to  change  the  figure,  there 
is  room  in  the  economy  of  revelation,  as  in  the 
economy  of  nature,  for  that  which  is  less  perfect  as 
well  as  for  that  which  is  more  perfect,  for  vessels  of 
less  honour  as  well  as  for  vessels  of  greater  h^onour.. 
Certainly,  in  a  sense,  every  true  and  noble  thought 
of  man  is  inspired  of  God;  the  searchers  after  truth 
who  in  a  remote  past  and  in  distant  climes  sought 
after   God,   in   part   also   found   Him;   but   with   the 

■*The  simile  is  that  of  an  old  Puritan  divine,  quoted  by  Dr 
Briggs,  The  Bible,  the  Chtirch,  and  the  Reaso?i  (1892),  p.  101. 

54 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

Biblical  writers,  the  purifying  and  illuminating  Spirit 
must  have  been  present  in  some  special  and  excep- 
tional measure.  Nevertheless,  in  the  words  of  the 
prophet,  or  other  inspired  writer,  there  is  a  human 
element  not  less  than  a  Divine  element;  it  is  a 
mistake,  and  a  serious  mistake,  to  ignore  either.  We 
may  not,  indeed,  be  able  to  analyse  the  physical  con- 
ditions under  which  a  consciousness  of  Divine  truth 
was  awakened  in  the  prophets;  but  by  whatever 
means  the  consciousness  was  aroused,  the  Divine 
element  which  it  contained  was  assimilated  by  the 
prophet,  and  thus  appears  blended  with  the  ele- 
ments that  were  the  expression  of  his  own  character 
and  genius. 

And  so  it  is  that  the  voice  of  God  speaks  to  us  from 
the  Old  Testament  in  manifold  tones.*  Through 
the  history  of  Israel  as  a  nation,  through  the  lives 
of  its  representative  men,  and  through  the  varied 
forms  of  its  national  literature,  God  has  revealed] 
Himself  to  the  world.  From  the  Old  Testament  we 
learn  how  God  awakened  in  His  ancient  people  the 
consciousness  of  Himself;  and  we  hear  one  writer 
after  another  unfolding  different  aspects  of  His 
nature,  and  disclosing  with  increasing  distinctness 
His  gracious  purposes  towards  man.  In  the  pages 
of  the  prophets  there  shine  forth,  with  ineffaceable 
lustre,  those  sublime  declarations  of  righteousness, 
mercy,    and    judgment    which    have    impressed    all 

*  "  By  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners  "  (Heb.  i.  i). 
55 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

readers,  to  whatever  age,  or  clime,  or  creed,  they 
have  belonged.  In  the  Psalms  we  hear  the  devout 
human  soul  pouring  forth  its  emotions  in  converse 
with  God,  declaring  its  penitence  and  contrition,  its 
confidence  and  faith,  its  love  and  devotion,  its 
thanksgiving  and  jubilation,  its  adoration  and  praise. 
In  the  Law,  viewed  in  its  different  parts,  we  hear 
the  voice  of  God  accommodating  itself  to  the  needs 
of  different  ages,  and  disciplining  His  people  by- 
ordinances,  sometimes  imperfect  in  themselves,  till 
they  should  be  ready  for  the  freedom  to  be  con- 
ferred by  Christ.  The  historians  set  before  us,  from 
different  points  of  view,  the  successive  stages  in  the 
Divine  education  of  the  race.  They  do  not,  like  the 
prophets,  claim  to  be  delivering  a  message  which 
they  have  received  immediately  from  God:  their  in- 
spiration is  shown  in  the  spirit  which  they  breathe 
into  the  narrative  and  in  their  interpretation  of  the 
history;  they  show  how  a  providential  purpose  over- 
rules it;  and  they  bring  out  the  spiritual  and  moral 
lessons  imphcit  in  it.  Sometimes,  especially  in  deal- 
ing with  the  earlier  period,  to  which  no  sure  histori- 
cal recollections  reached  back,  they  are  dependent, 
doubtless,  upon  popular  oral  tradition;  but  pene- 
trated as  they  are  by  deep  moral  and  religious  ideas, 
and  possessing  profound  spiritual  sensibilities,  they 
so  fill  in  the  outlines  furnished  by  tradition,  that  the 
events  or  personages  of  antiquity  become  spiritually 
significant— embody     spiritual     lessons,     or     become 

56 


THE  LIGHT   OF  TO-DAY 

spiritual  types,  for  the  imitation  or  warning  of 
succeeding  generations.  And  like  all  other  writers 
of  the  Old  Testament,  they  declare  very  plainly 
God's  approval  of  righteousness  and  His  displeasure 
at  sin.  It  is  impossible  not  to  believe  that  both  the 
literature  and  the  religious  history  of  Israel  would 
have  been  very  different  from  what  they  were,  had 
not  some  special  charisma  of  supernatural  insight 
into  the  ways  of  God  been  granted  to  its  religious 
teachers.* 

(3)  Thirdly,  I  should  like,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to 
do  so,  to  offer  some  suggestions  of  a  more  or  less 
practical  character.  A  large  amount  of  new  light 
has  been  shed  upon  the  Old  Testament;  our  know- 
ledge of  the  ways  in  which  God  of  old  time  "spake 
to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets"  has  been  variously 
modified,  corrected,  or  enlarged;  and  it  is  clearly 
our  duty  to  turn  this  knowledge  to  some  practical 
account.  If,  then,  I  may  begin  by  addressing  a  few 
words  more  particularly  to  those  of  my  hearers  who 
may   be   regarded    still   as    students    and   learners,    I 

*The  subject  of  the  preceding  paragraphs  has  beeu  developed 
by  the  writer  more  fully  in  the  6th  and  7th  of  his  Sermons  on 
Subjects  connected  with  the  Old  Testanie7it,  on  "  The  Voice  of 
God  in  the  Old  Testament,"  and  "  Inspiration,"  respectively. 
See  also  the  comprehensive  and  illuminative  treatment  of  the 
same  subject  in  Prof.  S^nddiy's  Bampto?i  Lectures  on  ^'lns^\r3.- 
tion"  (1893),  esp.  Lectures  iii.,  iv.,  v.  and  viii.  (A  paragraph  on 
the  permanent  religious  value  of  the  Old  Testament,  which 
originally  followed  here,  has  been  omitted  as  no  longer  necessary, 
in  view  of  the  fuller  treatment  of  the  same  subject  in  the  next 
paper). 

57 


i 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

would  observe  that  the  foundation  of  all  true 
Biblical  study  consists  in  a  first-hand  knowledge  of 
the  Bible  itself,  to  be  obtained,  wherever  possible, 
by  a  training  in  sound  and  scientific  methods  of 
philology  and  exegesis.  Nothing  can  supersede  an 
acquaintance,  as  intimate  as  it  can  be  made,  with 
the  original  languages  of  the  Bible;  it  is  that  know- 
ledge which  brings  us  as  nearly  face  to  face  as  is 
possible  with  the  original  writers,  and  enables  us 
to  perceive  many  links  of  connexion  and  shades  of 
meaning,  which  can  with  difficulty,  if  at  all,  be 
brought  home  to  us  by  a  translation.  But  we  live 
in  another  world  from  that  in  which  the  Biblical 
writers  moved;  and  hence  the  associations  sugges- 
ted by  a  given  word,  which  were  obvious  at  once 
to  those  who  originally  used  it,  or  heard  it  used,  are 
often  not  apparent  to  us;  and  they  have  to  be  re- 
covered painfully  and  slowly,  by  research  of  various 
kinds,  in  geography,  archaeology,  Hfe  and  manners 
in  the  East,  or  other  subjects,  if  the  Bible  is  to- 
speak,  even  approximately,  with  the  same  distinct- 
ness to  us  as  it  did  to  those  to  whom  its  various; 
parts  were  originally  addressed. 

Philology  and  exegesis,  assisted  by  such  ancillary 
studies,  form,  then,  the  foundation  of  sound  Biblical 
knowledge;  but  the  next  aspect  under  which,  if  it 
is  to  be  intelligently  understood,  the  Bible  must  be 
studied,  is  the  historical  aspect.  The  Bible  is  the 
embodiment    of   a  historical   revelation;    and   if   the 

58 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

significance  of  the  successive  stages  of  this  is  to  be 
adequately  grasped,  the  different  parts  of  the  Bible 
must  be  viewed  in  their  true  historical  perspective, 
in  order  that  the  correlation  of  the  revelation  to  the 
history  may  be  properly  perceived,  and  the  aims,  and 
position,  and  influence  of  the  different  prophets,  for 
instance,  may  be  properly  understood.  This  work 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  criticism.  And  it  is 
here  that  criticism,  by  distinguishing — as  its  name 
implies — what  was  once  confused,  has  proved  a  most 
helpful  handmaid  of  theology.  There  is  a  principle, 
the  importance  of  which  has  long  been  recognized 
by  theologians,  the  progressiueness  of  revelation,  its 
adaptation,  at  different  periods,  to  the  moral  and 
spiritual  capacities  of  those  to  whom  it  was  primarily 
addressed;  and  what  is  sometimes  called  the  "higher 
criticism"  (see  above,  p.  6)  of  the  Old  Testament, 
determining,  as  it  does,  at  least  approximately,  the 
stages  by  which  the  Old  Testament  gradually  reached 
its  present  form,  enables  the  theologian  to  carry  on 
and  develop  this  principle  to  its  legitimate  conse- 
quences. A  true  historical  view  of  the  growth  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  of  the  progress  of  revelation, 
besides  being  important  for  its  own  sake,  is  valuable 
also  in  another  way;  it  removes,  viz.,  many  of  the 
difficulties,  sometimes  historical,  sometimes  moral, 
which  the  Old  Testament  presents,  and  which  fre- 
quently form  serious  stumbling-blocks.  The  older 
apologists,  by  the  harmonistic  and  other  methods  at 

59 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

their  disposal,  were  quite  unable  to  deal  with  these: 
historical  criticism  shows  that  they  belong  to  the 
human  element  in  the  Bible,  and  that  they  are  to  be 
explained  by  reference  either  to  the  historical  posi- 
tion of  the  writer,  or  to  the  imperfections  incident 
to  a  relatively  immature  stage  in  the  spiritual  edu- 
cation of  mankind.* 

What  conclusions  reached  by  critics  may,  however, 
be  reasonably  accepted  ?  I  must  here  insist  again 
upon  a  distinction,  to  the  importance  of  which  I 
have  called  attention  elsewhere,  because  it  appears 
to  me  to  be  one  which  is  not  always  sufficiently  kept 
in  view.  I  mean  the  distinction  between  degrees  of 
probability.  The  value  and  probability  of  a  con- 
clusion depends  upon  the  nature  of  the  grounds  upon 
which  it  rests.  Hence,  I  venture  to  think,  it  is  a 
sound  practical  rule  to  acquire  early  the  habit  of 
classifying  conclusions,  of  estimating  them  with 
reference  to  the  grounds  alleged  on  their  behalf,  and 
of  asking  ourselves,  Is  this  practically  certain  ?  or,  Is 
it  only  probable  ?  or.  Is  it  more  than  just  possible  ? 
I  should  apply  this  rule  pretty  freely  to  emendations, 
to  interpretations,  to  historical  or  archaeological 
hypotheses,  and  to  other  similar  subjects.  Now, 
some  of  the  conclusions  reached  by  critics  rest  upon 
such  a  wide  and  varied  induction  of  facts  that  they 
may  be  accepted  as   practically  certain,  and  as  de- 

*  Comp.  Kirkpatrick,  T/ie  Divine  Library  of  the  Old  Testament 
(1891),  pp.  103-109. 

60 


THE  LIGHT   OF  TO-DAY 

serving  to  be  called  the  assured  results  of  criticism. 
But  beyond  the  limit  of  these  assured  results  there 
is  a  tolerably  wide  fringe,  in  which,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  from  the  fact  that  the  data  are  slight,  or 
uncertain,  or  conflicting,  no  indisputable  conclusions 
can  be  drawn;  there  is  scope  for  more  than  one 
possibility;  clever  and  even  illuminative  hypotheses 
may  be  suggested,  but  we  cannot  feel  confident  that 
they  are  correct.  We  must  not  resent  hypotheses  of 
this  kind  being  propounded,  even  though  in  some 
cases  they  should  seem  to  us  improbable;  for  such 
hypotheses,  in  this  as  in  other  departments  of  know- 
ledge, are  one  of  the  conditions  on  which  progress 
depends.  They  mark  out  the  lines  upon  which  atten- 
tion should  be  concentrated  and  investigation  carried 
on,  with  the  view,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  either  con- 
firming or  invalidating  them.  This  fringe  of  uncer- 
tainty, as  it  may  be  called,  forms  an  attractive  field 
for  speculation,  and  it  frequently  gives  rise  to  rival 
hypotheses;  but  it  is  essential  that  it  should  be  dis- 
tinguished carefully  from  the  field  within  which  we 
may  speak  rightly  of  assured  results  being  reached, 
and  that  conclusions  relating  to  it  should  be  adopted 
with  caution  and  reserve.  I  may  add  that  the  differ- 
ences between  critics,  which  are  sometimes  laid  in- 
discriminately to  their  charge,  and  spoken  of  as  if 
they  implied  on  their  part  the  habitual  use  of  false 
methods,  are  in  reality  limited  to  this  margin  of 
uncertainty,    where    their    occurrence    is    simply    a 

61 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

natural  consequence  of  the  imperfection  or  ambiguity 
of  the  data. 

May  I  say,  lastly,  in  what  way,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
the  critical  view  of  the  Old  Testament  should  be  in- 
troduced into  teaching  ?  As  regards  children,  I  do 
not  think  that  on  this  ground  any  change  whatever 
should  be  made  in  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
taught;  they  are  not  in  a  position  to  understand  the 
questions  or  distinctions  involved.  But  they  should 
be  familiarized  early  with  the  text  of  the  Bible :  if 
I  may  speak  from  the  experience  of  my  own  house- 
hold, a  text  of  the  New  Testament  a  day  is  learnt 
without  effort  by  a  child  of  six,  and  if  the  process 
is  continued,  a  valuable  selection  of  continuous  pas- 
sages from  both  Testaments  may  be  known  by  heart 
by  the  age  of  nine  or  ten.  Gradually,  as  the  child 
grows  older,  it  should  be  familiarized  with  the  his- 
torical parts  of  the  Bible,  the  narratives  of  the 
Gospels,  the  stories  of  the  patriarchs,  the  Exodus, 
the  Judges  and  Samuel.  Whatever  is  to  be  added 
afterwards,  a  knowledge  of  the  text  is  a  primary 
essential,  and  of  course  simple  lessons  suggested  by 
the  narrative  may  be  pointed  out,  for  these  lessons 
are  there,  whatever  the  historical  character  of  the 
narrative  should  ultimately  prove  to  be.  But  when 
the  children  reach  an  age  at  which  their  powers  are 
maturing — and  if  they  were  boys  in  the  upper  classes 
of  a  public  school,  their  mental  outlook  would  be 
beginning  to  be  enlarged,  and  they  would  be  encour- 

62 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

aged  to  inquire  about  many  things  which  it  would 
not  have  occurred  to  them  to  inquire  about  before — 
then  I  think  that  the  principal  conclusions  reached 
by  scholars  on  the  subject  of  the  Old  Testament 
should  be  gradually  and  judiciously  placed  before 
them.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  right  or  just 
that  young  men  should  be  sent  into  the  world  with 
antiquated  and  untenable  ideas  about  the  Bible, 
which  are  no  part  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  are  no 
element  in  any  creed,  and  so  to  run  the  risk  of  being 
disillusioned,  when  the  time  comes,  at  unfriendly 
hands,  and  of  making  shipwreck  of  their  faith.*  We 
have  our  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  and  it  is  not 
wise  to  imperil  the  treasure  for  the  sake  of  the  ves- 
sel. The  principal  difficulties  of  the  Bible  do  not,  to 
most  minds,  consist  in  the  doctrines  which  it  teaches, 
but  in  the  historical  setting  in  which  these  doctrines 
are  often  presented.  This  historical  setting  has,  in 
the  cases  I  have  in  view,  inherent  improbabUities, 
entirely  irrespective  of  the  miraculous  element  in  it, 
and  arising  out  of  the  representation  itself;  they 
may  consist,  for  instance,  in  false  science,  they  may 
consist  in  historical  or  literary  inconsistencies:  but 
whatever  they  are,  they  are  due  to  the  human  ele- 
ment in  the  Bible;  and  it  is  our  duty  to  recognize 

*  On  the  disastrous  effect  of  teaching  the  dogma — which,  it  is 
to  be  observed,  is  entirely  un-Bibhcal, — of  the  equal  value  and 
validity  of  all  parts  of  Scripture,  without  discrimination,  comp. 
the  forcible  remarks  of  G.  A.  Smith,  and  the  testimony  of  Henry 
Druramond,  quoted  by  him,  inhis  Mode?-n  Criticism  and  Preaching 
of  the  Old  Testament  (1901),  pp.  25-28. 

63 


THE   OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

this  element,  to  discover  its  character  and  extent, 
and  to  show  clearly  that  it  does  not  enter  into  the 
creed  of  a  Christian  man  in  the  same  way  in  which 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Bible  do.  In  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  for  instance,  we  confess  our  belief  in 
God  as  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth;  but  we  do 
not  affirm  that  He  made  it  in  the  manner  described 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 

The  Bible  can  never  suffer  by  having  the  truth 
told  about  it.  The  Bible  suffers,  and  religion  suffers, 
when  claims  are  made  on  its  behalf  which  it  never 
raises  itself,  and  which,  when  examined  impartially, 
are  seen  to  be  in  patent  contradiction  with  the  facts. 
The  undue  exaltation  of  the  human  element  in  the 
Bible  finds  then  its  Nemesis.  It  ought,  then,  to  be 
shown  that  the  primary  aim  of  the  Bible  is  not  to 
anticipate  the  discoveries  of  science,  or  to  teach  cor- 
rect ancient  history,  but  to  teach  moral  and  spiritual 
truths,  and  history  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  the  vehicle 
or  exponent  of  these.  It  ought,  further,  to  be  shown 
that  the  historical  and  literary  character  of  the  Old 
Testament  writings  is  just  a  natural  consequence  of 
the  conditions  under  which  the  authors  wrote;  those 
who  lived  nearer  the  events  described  being  natur- 
ally, for  instance,  better  informed  than  those  who 
lived  at  a  distance  from  them.  No  historical  writer 
ever  claims  to  derive  the  materials  for  his  narrative 
from  a  supernatural  source  (cf.  St.  Luke  i.  1-4); 
and  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  it  has  not  pleased  God  in 

64 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

this  respect  to  correct,  where  they  existed,  the  im- 
perfections attaching  to  the  natural  position  of  the 
writer.  Applying  these  principles,  I  should  explain 
how,  in  the  opening  chapters  of  Genesis,  two  writers 
had  told  us  how  the  Hebrews  pictured  to  themselves 
the  beginnings  of  the  world  and  the  early  history  of 
man;  how,  borrowing  their  materials  in  some  cases 
from  popular  tradition  or  behef,  in  others,  directly  or 
indirectly,  from  the  distant  East,  they  had  breathed 
into  them  a  new  spirit,  and  constructed  with  their 
aid  narratives  replete  with  noble  and  deep  truths  re- 
specting God  and  man;  how  one  writer  had  grafted 
upon  the  false  science  of  antiquity  a  dignified  and 
true  picture  of  the  relation  of  the  world  to  God;  how 
another  writer,  in  a  striking  symbolic  narrative, 
had  described  how  man's  moral  capacity  was  awak- 
ened, put  to  the  test,  and  failed;  how  in  the  sequel, 
by  other  symbolic  narratives,  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  growing  power  of  sin,  God's  judgment  upon 
it.  His  purposes  towards  man,  are  successively  set 
forth.*  Passing  next  to  the  patriarchal  period, 
where  real  historical  recollections  seem  to  begin,  I 
should  show  how  the  skeleton,  which  is  all  that  we 
can  reasonably  suppose  to  have  been  furnished  by 
tradition,  was  clothed  by  the  narrators  with  a  living 
vesture  of  circumstance,  expression,  and  character, — 

*  Comp.,  for  details,  the  small  but  instructive  volume  of  Prof. 
Ryle,  of  Cambridge  (afterwards  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  now 
(191 1)  Dean  of  VVestminster).  called  The  Early  Narratives  of 
Genesis  (1892). 

65 

F 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 

being,  no  doubt,  in  the  process  coloured  to  some 
extent  by  the  beUefs  and  associations  of  the  age  in 
which  the  narrators  lived  themselves, — ^and  how  in 
this  way  the  pattern-figures  of  the  patriarchs  were 
created,  and  those  idyllic  narratives  produced  which 
have  at  once  fascinated  and  instructed  so  many  gen- 
erations of  men.*  I  should  proceed  similarly  through 
the  other  parts  of  the  Pentateuch,  explaining,  with- 
out concealment  or  disguise,  the  grounds  which  pre- 
clude us  from  accepting  the  narrative  as  uniformly 
historical,  but  pointing  out  that  it  was  the  form  in 
which  the  Hebrews  themselves  told  the  story  of  the 
Exodus  and  of  their  conquest  of  Canaan,  and  empha- 
sizing especially  what  is  really  its  most  important 
element,  the  religious  teaching  embodied  in  it, — for 
example  the  lessons  suggested  by  the  beautifully 
drawn  character  of  Moses,  and  the  many  striking 
declarations  which  it  contains  of  the  character  and 
purposes  of  God.  I  repeat  it,  the  irreligious  or  un- 
spiritual  man  may  ignore  all  this;  but  no  criticism 
can  eliminate  it  from  the  narrative.  I  should  also 
call  attention  to  the  three  great  codes  of  law  con- 
tained   in   the    Pentateuch,t    indicating    the    general 

*  Comp.  the  articles  on  the  different  patriarchs  in  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible ;  or  the  present  writer's  Book  of  Genesis^ 
pp.  Ixi.-lxxiv. 

fThe  "  Book  of  the  Covenant"  (Ex.  xx.  23-xxiii,),  Deuteronomy, 
and  the  Priestly  Law  (chiefly  Leviticus  and  the  greater  part  of 
Numbers).  See,  for  further  details,  the  article  "  Law  in  Old 
Testament,"  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

66 


THE  LIGHT  OF  TO-DAY 

character  and  purpose  of  each,  and  dwelUng  in  par- 
ticular upon  the  lofty  spiritual  teaching  of  Deuter- 
onomy. I  should  then,  as  occasion  offered,  select 
passages  from  the  prophetical  books,  showing  in 
what  way  they  had  a  meaning  and  a  significance  in 
the  circumstances,  political  or  social,  of  the  time  at 
which  they  were  written,  and  pointing  out  the  per- 
manent moral  and  spiritual  lessons  contained  in  them. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  I  should  not  meanwhile  neg- 
lect the  New  Testament;  but  I  am  not  dealing  with 
that  to-night.  I  do  not  understand  that  by  teaching 
such  as  this  the  religious  value  or  authority  of  the 
Old  Testament  would  be  depreciated  or  impaired:  I 
believe,  on  the  contrary,  that  its  contents  would  gain 
very  greatly  in  reality;  it  would  be  read  with  in- 
creased interest  and  appreciation,  and  the  Divine  ele- 
ment in  it  would  be  placed  upon  a  far  firmer  and 
securer  foundation  than  is  provided  for  it  by  the 
ordinary  view.  The  importance  of  improved  methods 
in  the  Religious  Teaching  in  Secondary  Schools  has 
been  recently  urged  with  much  force,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  with  reason  and  discrimination,  in  a  vol- 
ume bearing  this  title  by  Dr.  Bell,  the  Headmaster 
of  Marlborough  College.  I  am  aware  that,  for  the 
purposes  I  have  indicated,  the  helps  in  the  shape  of 
commentaries  and  manuals  which  many  teachers 
might  require  are  at  present  fewer  than  they  should 
be;  but  the  claims  of  the  Bible  to  be  studied  more 
intelligently,  though  at  the  same  time  not  less  rever- 

67 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

ently,  than  it  used  to  be,  have  of  late  years  been 
widely  recognised  in  this  country,  and  it  is  reason- 
able to  expect  that  the  deficiency  in  suitable  books 
may  in  due  time  be  supphed.* 


*  Since  these  words  were  originally  written  (in  1900)  the  ex- 
pectation here  expressed  has  been  fulfilled  to  a  gratifying  extent. 
See  the  list  of  select  books  below,  p.  89  ff. 

68 


The   Permanent  Religious   Value  of 
THE  Old  Testament. 


IV. 

THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS  VALUE  OF 
THE   OLD  TESTAMENT.* 

IN  an  article  such  as  the  present,  it  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  say,  it  is  impossible  to  treat  a  subject  like 
this  with  any  approach  to  completeness.  All  that 
I  can  do  is  to  suggest  briefly  for  the  reader's  con- 
sideration some  of  its  more  salient  aspects,  leaving 
him  to  fill  in  details,  and  supply  omissions,  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament  which  he  possesses 
himself.  I  shall,  therefore,  without  further  preface, 
proceed  to  summarize  the  chief  heads  under  which, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  the  elements  of  permanent  reli- 
gious value  in  the  Old  Testament  may  be  grouped, 
and  so  indicate  the  grounds  which,  even  while  its 
contents  are  judged  by  a  critical  standard,  must  ever, 
I  believe,  secure  for  it  a  position  and  influence  in  the 
Church,  second  only  to  those  possessed  by  the  New- 
Testament  itself. 

I.  The  first  and  primary  claim,  then,  to  permanent 
religious  value  which  the  Old  Testament  possesses 
consists  in  the  surprisingly  lofty  and  elevated  con- 
ceptions   of    God    which    prevail    in    it — conceptions, 

*  Reprinted  from  the  Interpreter  ior  January,  1905,  p.  10  ff. 
71 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

moreover,  which  appeal  more  strongly,  and  are  more 
satisfying,  to  the  rehgious  instincts  of  mankind  than 
those  which  are  to  be  found  in  any  other  literature, 
save  only  in  that  of  the  New  Testament.  Of  course, 
when  this  is  said,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
revelation  of  God  contained  in  the  Old  Testament 
advanced  by  stages  and  was  gradual;  and  this  being 
the  case,  it  must  at  once  be  frankly  admitted  that  in 
parts  of  the  Old  Testament  there  is  an  accommoda- 
tion to  the  immature  stage  of  religious  belief  which 
the  people  had  reached,  and  that  sometimes  the 
narratives,  and  even  occasionally  the  prophecies,  are 
coloured  by  the  specifically  national,  or,  as  they  are 
sometimes  called  "particularistic"  features,  which 
were  the  result  of  the  often  hostile  and  antagonistic 
relations  in  which  Israel  stood  to  the  heathen  nations 
around  it.  But  when  every  deduction  has  been  made 
on  these  accounts,  it  remains  that  the  general  con- 
ception of  God  presented  by  the  Old  Testament  is 
singularly  dignified,  lofty  and  spiritual.  To  take  but 
one  or  two  examples.  The  science  of  the  first  chap- 
ter of  Genesis  is  the  science  of  the  age  in  which  the 
chapter  was  written;  but  upon  this  imperfect,  and 
in  many  respects  false  science,  its  author,  under 
the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  has  grafted  a  won- 
derfully sublime  and  spiritual  representation  of  the 
Sovereign  Author  of  nature,  conceiving  and  present- 
ing Him  as  a  purely  spiritual  Being,  who,  moulding 
the  material  substance  of  the  universe  to  His  will, 

72 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

adapts  the  world  gradually,  by  successive  stages,  to 
become  the  abode  of  lower  and  higher  forms  of  life, 
and  (ultimately)  of  beings  endowed  with  reason,  and 
who  assigns  to  every  living  species  upon  it  its  proper 
office  and  function.  The  science  of  this  chapter  is 
antiquated:  but  the  representation  of  the  Divine 
action  contained  in  it  is  not,  and  can  never  become, 
antiquated;  it  must  ever  remain  as  one  of  the  price- 
less heirlooms  which  the  people  of  Israel  have  be- 
queathed to  the  world.  And  so  when  we  pass  to  the 
second  and  third  chapters  of  the  same  book,  though, 
it  is  true,  we  can  hardly,  any  more  than  in  the  first 
chapter,  be  reading  a  literal  history,  we  have  brought 
before  us,  in  a  pictorial  or  symbolical  form,  adapted 
to  the  comprehension  of  the  men  for  whose  spiritual 
instruction  the  narrative  was  first  written,  deep 
thoughts  about  God  and  man — how  man  was  created 
by  God,  and  placed  by  Him  in  a  position  designed 
to  develop  his  capabilities,  and  test  his  character; 
how  he  was  at  first  innocent;  how  he  became — as 
man  must  have  become,  whether  in  "Eden"  or  else- 
where, at  some  period  of  his  existence — conscious  of 
a  moral  law,  but  how  temptation  fell  upon  him,  and 
he  broke  it.  The  fall  of  man,  the  great  and  terrible 
truth,  the  reality  of  which  is  evidenced  both  by  his- 
tory and  by  individual  experience,  is  thus  vividly  and 
impressively  brought  home  to  each  one  of  us.  Man, 
however,  the  sequel  teaches  us,  though  punished  by 
God,  is  not  forsaken  by  Him,  nor  left,  in  his  long 

73 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

conflict  with  evil,  without  hope  of  victory.  The  re- 
presentation of  God  in  these  chapters  is  much  more 
anthropomorphic  than  that  in  ch.  i.,  and  is  evidently 
the  expression  of  a  more  primitive  stage  of  reUgious 
thought :  a  series  of  sensible  acts  is  attributed  to 
Him;  He  plants,  takes,  sets,  etc.,  and  the  sound  of  His 
footsteps  is  heard  as  He  walks  in  the  garden;  but 
even  the  reader  of  the  present  age  does  not  feel  that 
the  fact  at  all  materially  detracts  from  the  essen- 
tially spiritual  character  of  the  fundamental  teaching 
which  the  narrative  contains. 

But  we  must  leave  the  historical  books  and  pass 
on  to  consider  briefly  what  some  of  the  prophets 
teach  on  the  same  subject.  Amos,  the  earliest  of  the 
canonical  prophets,  proclaims  that  Jehovah,  though 
He  is  in  a  special  sense  the  God  of  Israel,  is  at  the 
same  time  the  God  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth, 
under  whose  providence  the  PhiHstines  migrated 
from  Caphtor  just  as  Israel  migrated  out  of  Egypt, 
who  views  all  nations  with  an  impartial  eye,  and 
visits  Edom  or  Moab  for  its  sin  not  less  than  Israel, 
and  Israel,  in  spite  of  His  choice  of  it,  not  less  than 
Edom  and  Moab.  Hosea  is  the  prophet  of  religious 
emotion:  his  own  nature  is  one  of  love;  and  Jeho- 
vah is  to  him  pre-eminently  the  God  of  love,  who 
has  cherished  His  "son"  with  tenderness  and  affec- 
tion, who  is  grieved  by  the  coldness  with  which  His 
love  is  requited,  but  who  still  loves  His  nation  even 
while  He  finds  Himself  obliged  to  cast  it  from  Him. 

74 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Isaiah  dwells  upon  the  holiness  and  majesty  of  Jeho- 
vah; and  in  imposing  imagery,  such  as  he  alone 
among  the  prophets  can  command,  depicts  Him  as 
manifesting  Himself  against  all  that  is  "proud  and 
lofty"  in  Judah,  as  controlling  from  His  throne  in 
heaven  the  movements  of  the  nations,  or  as  striking 
down  in  storm  and  tempest  the  serried  hosts  of 
Assyria.  And  the  great  prophet  of  the  Exile,  the 
author  of  the  discourses  which  now  form  chapters 
xl.-lxvi.  of  the  book  of  Isaiah,  preaches  in  language 
more  exalted  and  impressive  than  is  to  be  found  in 
any  other  part  of  the  Bible,  the  transcendence,  the 
omnipotence,  the  infinitude  of  Israel's  God,  the 
First  and  the  Last,  the  sole  Creator  and  Sustainer  of 
the  Universe,  whose  throne  is  indeed  in  the  height 
of  heaven,  but  who  stands,  nevertheless,  in  intimate 
relation  with  the  earth,  who  is  the  high  and  lofty 
one  that  inhabiteth  eternity,  but  who  dwells  also 
with  the  humble  and  contrite  heart,  and  who  has, 
moreover.  His  purposes  of  grace,  which,  though  they 
are  directed  with  special  affection  towards  Israel, 
comprehend  within  their  ultimate  scope  all  the  kin- 
dreds of  the  earth. 

The  idea  of  God  presented  in  these  and  other 
passages  of  the  Old  Testament  is  not  arrived  at  by 
a  process  of  philosophic  abstraction;  it  is  the  result, 
we  can  only  suppose,  of  a  Divinely  quickened  intui- 
tion, which  enabled  the  inspired  thinkers  and  seers 
of  Israel  gradually  to  elevate  and  purify  their  con- 

75 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

ception  of  Him,  and  to  discern,  as  history  moved 
on,  and  their  own  spiritual  perceptions  were  enlarged, 
new  aspects  of  His  being.  To  sum  up,  in  very  general 
terms,  the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  on  the 
nature  and  attributes  of  God,  we  may  say  that  it 
represents  Him  as  a  personal  Being,  who,  though 
depicted  under  the  most  anthropomorphic  imagery, 
is  nevertheless  considered  always  as  purely  spiritual; 
who  possesses  a  definite  moral  character,  and  is 
all-holy,  all-just,  and  all-wise;  who  condescends  to 
enter  into  relations  of  grace  with  His  intelligent 
creatures;  who  loves  man,  and  will  in  turn  be  loved 
by  him;  whose  anger  is  aroused  by  sin,  but  who  is 
gracious  towards  the  repentant  sinner;  who  mani- 
fests Himself  in  His  redemptive  purpose  to  Israel, 
and  teaches  His  nation  ever  gradually  to  know  Him 
better,  and  who  deigns  in  the  end  to  make  known 
His  salvation  to  the  nations  of  the  world  at  large. 

II.  Secondly,  the  Old  Testament  is  of  permanent 
value  on  account  of  the  clearness  and  emphasis 
with  which  it  proclaims  the  duty  of  man,  both 
towards  God  and  towards  his  fellow-men.  Love  and 
reverence,  obedience  and  gratitude,  penitence  for  sin 
and  humility — these  are,  in  brief,  to  be  the  deter- 
mining principles  of  man's  attitude  towards  God. 
Passages  illustrating  what  has  been  said  will  occur 
to  every  reader  of  these  pages.  For  our  present 
purpose  it  will  suffice  to  ask  whether  the  whole  duty. 

76 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  man  can  be  more  forcibly  summed  up  than  in  the 
two  well-known  passages  of  Deuteronomy : — 

"The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord:  and  thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might"   (vi.  4,   5). 

And  (x.  12,  13) — 

"And  now,  Israel,  what  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  re- 
quire of  thee,  but  to  fear  the  LORD  thy  God,  to  walk 
in  all  his  ways,  and  to  love  him,  and  to  serve  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  to  keep  the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  and 
his  statutes,  which  I  command  thee  this  day  for  thy 
good  ?" 

Deuteronomy  is  a  great  book:  as  has  been  justly 
said,  it  is  a  book  of  national  religion,  and,  accord- 
ingly, has  some  of  the  limitations  of  age  and  place 
stamped  upon  it;  but  it  is  at  the  same  time  a  book 
of  personal  religion,  and  so  of  universal  religion: 
and  in  these  two  passages  one  of  the  most  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  writer  is  impressively  pro- 
pounded. Love  to  God,  i.e.,  an  all-absorbing  sense 
of  personal  devotion  to  Him,  is  to  be  the  primary 
spring  of  human  action,  the  presiding  genius  of  the 
Israelite's  life.  Jehovah,  the  author  is  ever  eloquently 
insisting,  is  the  only  God,  a  pure  and  spiritual 
Being,  who  has  loved  Israel,  and  is  worthy  to  re- 
ceive Israel's  undivided  love  in  return.  Israel  is  to 
be  a  nation  holy  to  Him;  its  members  are  never  to 
forget  that  they  are  the  servants  of  a  holy  and  lov- 

77 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

ing  God;  and  love  is  to  be  the  guiding  principle  of 
their  conduct,  whether  towards  God  or  man.  And 
thus  Deuteronomy  teaches  the  great  truth  that  re- 
ligion is  concerned  not  only  with  the  intellect  and 
the  will,  but  that  it  involves  equally  the  exercise  and 
right  direction  of  the  affections. 

III.  The  duties  of  man  to  his  fellow-men  are  not 
in  the  Old  Testament  referred  to  any  principle  of 
ethics,  as  such:  they  are  justified  by  religious  sanc- 
tions; and  the  manner  in  which  they  are  treated  in 
it  may  thus  be  fitly  noticed  here.  The  paramount 
importance,  not  only  of  what  may  be  termed  the 
more  private  or  personal  virtues,  but  also  of  the 
great  domestic  and  civil  virtues,  upon  which  the 
happiness  of  the  family  and  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity depend,  is  throughout  insisted  on  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Truthfulness,  honesty,  sincerity,  justice, 
humanity,  philanthropy,  disinterestedness,  neigh- 
bourly regard,  sympathy  with  the  unfortunate  or 
the  oppressed,  the  refusal  to  injure  another  by  word 
or  deed,  cleanness  of  hands,  purity  of  thought  and 
action,  elevation  of  motive,  singleness  of  purpose, — 
these,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  virtues  which  pro- 
phets, legislators,  and  psalmists  are  alike,  in  different 
ways,  ever  inculcating  or  commending.  And  corres- 
ponding to  this  high  appreciation  of  moral  qualities 
there  is  its  correlative, — a  hatred  of  wrong-doing 
and  a  profound  sense  of  sin, — which  is  stamped,  if 
possible,  yet  more  conspicuously  upon  the  literature 

78 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

of  ancient  Israel.  A  single  quotation  must  suffice 
as  an  illustration:  it  shall  be  from  the  first  of  the 
prophets,  Amos  (viii.  4-7),  whose  righteous  indigna- 
tion is  aroused  by  the  avarice  and  injustice  rampant 
about  him: — 

"Hear  this,  O  ye  that  would  swallow  up  the  needy. 

And  cause  the  poor  of  the  land  to  fail, 
Saying,  When  will  the  new  moon  be  gone,  that 
we  may  sell  corn  ? 

And  the  sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth  wheat  ? 
Making  the  ephah  small,  and  the  shekel  great, 

And  dealing  falsely  with  balances  of  deceit; 
That  we  may  buy  the  poor  for  silver, 

And  the  needy  for  a  pair  of  shoes. 

And  sell  the  refuse  of  the  wheat. 
The  Lord  hath  sworn  by  the  majesty  of  Jacob, 

Surely  I  will  never  forget  any  of  their  works." 

Till  the  grinding  down  of  the  poor  and  commercial 
dishonesty  are  things  of  the  past — a  consummation, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  still  far  distant — these  words  of  the 
herdman  of  Tekoa  will  not  be  antiquated  or  out  of 
date.  More  examples  could  readily  be  found  (e.g., 
Is.  i.,  v.).  The  prophets  devote  some  of  their  finest 
and  most  impressive  utterances  to  declaring,  upon 
religious  grounds,  the  claims  of  the  moral  law  upon 
the  obedience  of  mankind,  and  to  the  rebuke  of  vice 
and  sin. 

IV.  The  Old  Testament  is  of  permanent  value  in 
setting  before  us  examples  of  characters,  determined 
and  moulded  by  the  influence  of  their  religion,  which 

79 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

we  may  in  different  ways  adopt  as  our  models  and 
strive  to  imitate.  Of  course,  it  is  not  pretended 
that  the  characters  of  the  Old  Testament  are  devoid 
of  faults,  or  blameless.  Some,  for  instance,  are 
limited  by  the  moral  and  spiritual  conditions  of  the 
age  in  which  they  lived,  others  exhibit  personal  short- 
comings peculiar  to  themselves :  but  these  faults  are 
generally  discoverable  as  such  by  the  light  of  the 
principles  laid  down  in  the  Old  Testament  itself,  and 
none  can  certainly  fail  to  be  perceived  by  those  who 
live  under  the  higher  light  shed  upon  them  by  the 
Gospel.  But  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  how  differ- 
ently most  of  the  Old  Testament  characters  would 
have  felt  and  acted  had  they  not  been  softened  and 
refined  by  the  mellowing  influences  of  the  religion  of 
Jehovah.  The  leading  Old  Testament  characters 
display  in  a  word  not  virtues  merely,  but  graces.  In 
the  historical  books,  for  instance,  such  qualities  as 
kindness  and  fidelity,  modesty  and  simplicity,  do- 
mestic affection  and  friendship,  the  discipline  and 
repression  of  self,  are  abundantly  exemplified:  in  the 
case  of  Moses,  to  take  but  a  single  example,  what 
reader  can  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  nobility  and 
dignity,  the  disinterestedness  and  love  for  his  people 
which  he  habitually  displays  ?  No  doubt,  in  the  case 
of  those  narratives  which  were  committed  to  writing 
long  after  the  personages  lived  whose  doings  they 
purport  to  describe,  the  details  are  not  all  strictly 
historical;  and  the  picture  not  unfrequently  reflects 

80 


VALUE  OP^  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  narrator's  ideal  rather  than  the  actual  facts :  but 
this  circumstance  does  not  detract  from  their  didactic 
value :  the  characters  thus  drawn  still  possess  a 
great  typical  significance;  they  are  ideals  of  faith 
and  virtue,  highmindedness  and  goodness,  as  these 
and  other  similar  virtues  might  display  themselves  in 
many  different  situations  of  life;  they  are  spiritual 
types,  delineated  by  the  piety  of  an  age  which  looked 
back  upon,  and  idealized,  the  distant  and  heroic 
figures  of  the  past.  But  they  are  not  the  less  pro- 
ducts of  the  religion  of  Israel,  and  they  are  not  the 
less  to  be  reckoned  among  the  inestimable  heirlooms 
by  which  the  religion  of  Israel  has  enriched  the  world. 
The  nucleus  of  fact  contained  in  the  Chronicler's 
picture  of  David's  removal  of  the  Ark  to  Zion,  and 
his  preparations  for  a  Temple  (i  Chron.  xv.,  xvi., 
xxii.-xxix.),  except  in  the  few  verses  excerpted  with- 
out material  change  from  2  Sam.  vi.  12-20,  must  be 
exceedingly  small;*  but  nevertheless  these  chapters 
present  an  impressive  ideal  of  a  godly  king,  intent 
upon  organizing  worthily  the  public  worship  of  his 
God,  and  expressing  to  Him  the  due  homage  of  a 
devout  and  thankful  heart.  And  in  the  biographies 
of  the  patriarchs,  as  told  in  the  Book  of  Genesis — 
though  here  also  it  is  difficult  to  escape  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  actual  facts  have  been  more  or  less 
idealized, — the  lessons  which  they  teach  are  none  the 
less  valuable.  Truths  and  duties,  especially  those  be- 
*  See  the  note  above,  p.  49. 

81 

G 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

longing  to  the  "daily  round  and  common  task," 
such  as  we  all  need  to  learn,  and  continually  through 
our  lives  have  occasion  to  practise,  are  illustrated 
and  enforced  by  anecdotes  and  narratives,  which 
even  the  youngest  can  understand,  and  which  can 
never  cease  to  fascinate  and  enthral  those  who  have 
once  yielded  themselves  to  their  spell.* 

V.  The  Old  Testament  is  of  unsurpassed  value 
for  devotional  use  and  suggestiveness.  And  here 
our  attention  is  attracted  naturally,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, by  the  Book  of  Psalms,  in  which  the  ripest 
fruits  of  Israel's  spiritual  experience  are  gathered  to- 
gether, and  the  religious  affections  find  their  richest 
and  completest  expression.  In  the  Psalms  the  soul 
is  displayed  in  converse  with  God,  disclosing  to  Him, 
in  melodious  accents,  its  manifold  emotions,  its 
hopes  and  fears,  its  desires  and  aspirations :  we  hear 
in  them,  for  instance,  the  voices  of  despair  and  dis- 
tress, of  confession  and  supplication,  of  confidence 
and  faith,  of  yearning  for  God's  presence  and  spiri- 
tual communion  with  Him,  of  thanksgiving  and 
exultation,  of  adoration  and  praise;  we  hear  medita- 
tions on  the  great  attributes  of  the  Creator,  on  His 
hand  as  seen  in  nature  and  history,  on  the  problems 
of  human  life,  and  on  the  pathos  of  human  existence; 
and  we  hear  all  these  notes  uttered  with  a  depth  and 
an  intensity,  and  withal  with  a  chastened  beauty  of 

*  The  Book  of  Genesis,  by  the  present  writer,  p.  Ixxiv.  See, 
further,  ibid.,  pp.  Ixi.  ff.,  Ixviii.-Ixxiii. 

82 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

diction  and  rhythm,  which  secure  for  the  Psalter  a 
unique  position  in  religious  Uterature.  It  is  the  char- 
acteristic of  the  Psalms  that  love,  and  reverence,  and 
trust,  and  such-like  sacred  affections,  are  not,  as  in 
most  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  commanded 
or  enjoined  as  a  duty  from  without;  they  are  set 
before  us  as  exercised,  as  the  practical  response 
offered  by  the  believing  soul  to  the  claims  laid  upon 
it  by  its  Maker,  as  the  spontaneous  outcome  of  a 
heart  stirred  by  devout  emotions.  There  are  sound 
and  valid  reasons  for  doubting  whether  the  Psalms 
are  as  largely  as  is  commonly  supposed  a  product  of 
the  earlier  period  of  Israel's  history :  but  the  spiritual 
power  and  originality  of  a  particular  Psalm  is  not 
dependent  upon  the  date  at  which  it  was  composed, 
or  the  author  who  wrote  it;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that,  whatever  may  be  the  dates  of  individual 
Psalms,  the  Psalter,  as  a  devotional  manual,  rightly 
enjoys  the  pre-eminence  which  has  ever  been  at- 
tached to  it,  and  that  it  can  never  lose  the  place 
which  it  has  continuously  held  in  the  affections  and 
devotions  of  the  Church. 

But  though  the  devotional  spirit  finds  its  fullest 
and  most  familiar  expression  in  the  Psalter,  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  it  is  confined  to  this  part  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Many  passages  of  Deuteronomy, 
of  the  prophets,  and  the  Book  of  Job,  for  instance, 
are  also  naturally  adapted  to  kindle  religious  emo- 
tion,  and   stir   the   devotional   instincts.     It   will  be 

83 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

sufficient  here  to  refer  to  the  motives  of  gratitude 
and  devotion  so  often  persuasively  appealed  to  in 
the  discourses  of  Deuteronomy,  to  the  hymns  in 
Isa.  xxiv. — xxvii.,  so  beautifully  expressive  of  the  joy, 
and  hope,  and  trust,  of  the  redeemed  community  of 
the  future,  to  the  eloquent  and  moving  strain  of 
thanksgiving,  confession,  and  supplication,  in  which 
the  prophet  leads  the  devotions  of  his  people  in 
Is.  Ixiii.  7-lxiv.  12,  and  to  many  passages  in  the  Book 
of  Job,  which  express,  with  great  poetical  beauty, 
sometimes  the  sense  of  the  Creator's  omnipresence 
and  vastness,  sometimes  deep  truths  respecting  the 
scope  and  methods  of  God's  providence,  sometimes 
the  pathetic  longing  of  the  patriarch  for  a  removal 
of  the  barrier  which  seems  to  separate  him  from 
God.  The  freshness,  the  force,  and  the  completeness 
with  which  the  devotional  side  of  religion  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  Old  Testament  must,  as  long  as  man 
continues  possessed  of  religious  instincts,  ensure  for 
it  a  first  place  in  the  affections  of  all  who  know  it, 
and  effectually  prevent  it  from  ever  losing  its  value 
in  their  eyes. 

VI.  The  Old  Testament  possesses  a  peculiar  value 
of  its  own  on  account  of  the  great  ideals  of  human 
life  and  society  which  it  holds  up  before  its  readers. 
These  ideals,  delineated  usually  in  brilliant  colours, 
are  a  characteristic  feature  in  the  writings  of  the 
prophets,  who  love  to  picture  to  themselves  the  age 
in  which,  after  the  troubles  of  the  present  are  ended, 

84 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

the  Kingdom  of  God  will  be  established  upon  earth; 
when  human  nature,  freed  from  all  sin  and  imperfec- 
tion, and  inspired  by  an  innate  devotion  to  God  and 
right,  is  to  be  renovated  and  transformed;  when 
human  society,  no  longer  harassed  by  the  strife  of 
opposing  interests,  or  honey-combed  by  oppressions 
and  abuses,  is  to  be  held  together  by  the  bonds  of 
mutual  friendship  and  regard;  and  when  the  nations 
of  the  world,  laying  aside  their  weapons  of  war,  are 
to  be  united  in  a  federation  of  peace  under  the 
suzerainty  of  the  God  of  Israel  (see,  for  instance, 
Hos.  xiv. ;  Is.  ii.  2-4,  iv.  2-4,  xi.  i-io,  xix.  18-25, 
xxxii.  1-8,  Ix.;  Jer.  xxxi.  33-34;  Zeph.  iii.  11-17, 
etc.).  It  is  only  too  true,  alas  I  that  these  ideals 
remain  still  unfulfilled:  the  passions  and  wilfulness 
of  human  nature  have  proved  in  too  many  cases 
obstacles  insuperable  even  by  the  influences  of  Chris- 
tianity: but  the  world,  since  the  advent  of  Christ, 
has  at  least  made  some  advance;  and  meanwhile 
these  ideals  remain  as  inspiring  visions,  ever  holding 
up  before  us  the  consummation  which  human  en- 
deavour should  exert  itself  to  realize,  and  which 
human  society  may  one  day  hope  to  attain. 

VII.  We  may  notice,  lastly,  the  great  stress  laid 
in  the  Old  Testament  upon  a  pure  and  spiritual  reli- 
gion. Mankind  have  in  all  ages  shown  a  readiness  to 
conform  with  the  external  offices  of  religion,  while 
heedless  of  its  spiritual  precepts  and  of  the  claim 
which  it  makes  to  regulate  their  conduct  and  their 

85 


c 


THE  PERMANENT  RELIGIOUS 

life.  The  Jews,  in  whose  law,  taken  as  a  whole,  sacri- 
fice and  other  ceremonial  observances  bulked  largely, 
were  prompt  and  even  punctilious  in  the  performance 
of  such  external  rites :  they  thought  that  if  they  were 
sufficiently  regular  in  their  attendance  at  the  Temple, 
and  in  keeping  up  the  ceremonial  observances  of 
their  religion,  it  was  of  little  moment  what  their  con- 
duct in  other  respects  might  be;  they  were  secure  of 
Jehovah's  favour  (Jer.  vii.  1-15).  The  prophets,  on 
the  other  hand,  insist  emphatically  that  God  requires 
the  service  of  the  heart;  and  that  ritual  observances, 
however  scrupulously  maintained,  are  of  no  value  in 
His  eyes,  except  as  the  expression  of  a  right  heart, 
and  accompanied  by  integrity  of  life.  It  may  suffice 
to  quote  one  of  the  memorable  utterances  of  the  pro- 
phets on  this  subject.  Amos  (v.  21-24)  speaking  in 
Jehovah's  name  exclaims : 
"I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts. 

And  I  take  no  delight  in  your  solemn 
assemblies. 
Yea,  though  ye  offer  me  your  burnt-offerings  and 
meal-offerings,   I  will  not  accept  them; 
Neither  will  I  regard  the  peace-offerings  of 
your  fat  beasts. 
Take  thou  away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs; 

For  I  will  not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  lyres. 
But  let  judgement  roll  down  as  waters. 

And  righteousness  as  an  ever-flowing  stream." 
A  religion  of  the  heart,  a  religion  influencing  mor- 
ally the  direction  of  men's  thoughts  and  lives  and 
*  See  also  Hos.  vi.  6,  Is.  i.  10-17,  Mic.  vi.  6-8,  Ps.  1.  16-23. 
86 


VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

actions,  is  also  evidently  the  ideal  which  the  Psalm- 
ists placed  before  themselves,  as  it  is  also  the  ideal 
presented  in  the  beautiful  portrait  of  a  godly  and 
noble-minded  Israelite  depicted  in  the  thirty-first 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Job.  The  time  can  never 
come  when  the  pure  and  elevated  teaching  of  the 
prophets  and  psalmists  will  not  form  a  moral  and 
spiritual  standard,  recalhng  to  men  the  real  demands 
which  God  makes  of  His  worshippers,  and  exempli- 
fying, in  letters  which  all  can  read,  the  character 
and  conduct  in  which  He  truly  delights. 

And  so  there  can  surely  be  but  one  answer  to  the 
question  of  the  permanent  religious  value  of  the  Old 
Testament.  The  Old  Testament  Scriptures  enshrine 
truths  of  permanent  and  universal  validity.  They 
depict,  under  majestic  and  vivid  anthropomorphic 
imagery,  the  spiritual  character  and  attributes  of 
God.  They  contain  a  wonderful  manifestation  of  His 
grace  and  love,  and  of  the  working  of  His  Spirit  upon 
the  soul  of  man.  They  form  a  great  and  indispen- 
sable preparation  for  the  coming  of  Christ.  They 
exhibit  the  earlier  stages  of  a  great  redemptive  pro- 
cess, the  consummation  of  which  is  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament.  They  fix  and  exemplify  all  the  car- 
dinal qualities  of  the  righteous  and  God-fearing  man. 
They  insist  upon  the  paramount  claims  of  the  moral 
law  on  the  obedience  of  mankind.  They  inculcate 
with  impressive  eloquence  the  great  domestic  and 
civic  virtues  on  which  the  welfare  of  the  community 

87 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

depends;  they  denounce  fearlessly  vice  and  sin.  The 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  present  examples  of  faith 
and  conduct,  of  character  and  principle,  in  many 
varied  circumstances  of  life,  which  we  ourselves  may 
adopt  as  our  models,  and  strive  to  emulate.  They 
propound,  in  opposition  to  all  formalism,  a  standard 
of  pure  and  spiritual  religion.  They  lift  us  into  an 
atmosphere  of  religious  thought  and  feehng,  which 
is  the  highest  that  man  has  ever  reached,  save  in 
the  pages  of  the  New  Testament.  They  hold  up  to 
us,  in  those  pictures  of  a  renovated  human  nature 
and  transformed  social  state,  which  the  prophets 
love  to  delineate,  high  and  ennobling  ideals  of  human 
life  and  society,  upon  which  we  linger  with  wonder 
and  delight,  as  they  open  out  before  us  the  un-^ 
bounded  possibilities  of  the  future.  And  all  these 
great  themes  are  set  forth  with  a  classic  beauty  and 
felicity  of  diction,  and  with  a  choice  variety  of  liter- 
ary form,  which  are  no  unimportant  factors  in  the 
secret  of  their  power  over  mankind. 


SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

BEARING   ON  THE 

HIGHER    CRITICISM   OF   THE    OLD    TESTAMENT 

AND  EXPLAINING   OR  ILLUSTRATING  ITS 

METHODS  AND  RESULTS, 

The  ■prices  affixed  will  afford  an  indication  of  the  size  and  scope 
of  the  works  mentioned. 

Alford.  B.  H.     Old  Testament  History  a7td  Literature  (1911)  5.?. 
Box,  G.  H.     A  short  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old 

Testament  (is.). 
Bradley.  G.  (late  Dean  of  Westminster).     Lectures  on  Ecclesiastes 

(explanatory  paraphrase),  5s.  6d.  ;  Lectures  on  Job  (of  similar 

character)  75.  6d. 
Briggs,  C.  a.,   D.D.     General  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Holy 

Scripture  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York),  12s.     A  large 

and  comprehensive  work.     Pages  24-7,  92-109,  and  chaps,  xi. 

and  xii.  deal  with  the  '  Higher  Criticism  of  the  Bible.' 

Bruce,  A.  B.  Apologetics :  or,  Christianity  Defensively  Stated 
(105.  6d.).  Pages  165-336  ('  The  Historical  Preparation  for 
Christianity  ')  relate  to  the  Old  Testament. 

Burney,  C.  F.     Outlines  of  Old  Testament  Theology  (is.). 

Carpenter,  W.  Boyd  (late  Bishop  of  Ripon).     An  Introduction  to 

the  Study  of  the  Scriptures  (Dent  &  Co.)  is. 
Chapman,  A.   T.      An    Introdttctioit    to    the    Pentateuch    (191 1) 

3s.  6d.     Uniform  with  the  '  Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and 

Colleges.' 
Cheyne,  T,  K.      Aids  to   the  Devout  Study  of  Criticism,  6s.     A 

critical  study  of  the  narratives  about  David,  followed  by  a 

series  of  sermons  on  selected  Psalms. 

Commentaries  : — 

The   '  Century   Bible.'       Volumes  on   the   Old   Testament 

(2s.  6d.  each) — 

Genesis  znd  Exodus,  by  W.  H.  Bennett ;  Leviticus  and  Numbers, 

by  A.   R.   S.    Kennedy  ;  Deuteronomy  and  Joshua,  by  H.  W. 

Robinson  ;  Judges  and  Ruth,   by  G.  W.  Thatcher  ;   Samuel^ 

89 


SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

by  A.  R.  S.  Kennedy  ;  Kin^s,  by  J.  Skinner;  Job,  by  A.  S. 
Peake  ;  Psalms,  vol  i.  (Ps.  i.-lxxii.),  by  W.  T.  Davison  ;  vol.  ii. 
(Ps.  Ixxiii.-cl.),  by  T.  W.  Davies  ;  Isaiah  (2  vols.),  by  O.  C. 
Wiiitehouse  ;  Jeremiah  and  Lamentations  (2  vols.),  by  A.  S. 
Peake  ;  Minor  Prophets,  vol.  i.  (Hosea — Micah),  by  R.  F. 
Horton,  vol.  ii.  {Nahum — Malachi),  by  S.  K.  Driver. 

Barnes,  W.  E.  Kin<is  (3s.  6d.  and  Chronicles  {2s.  6d.)  in  the 
'Cambridge  Bible  for  Schools  and  Colleges.' 

Bennett,  W.  H.  Cnronicles  (in  the  'Expositor's  Bible'), 
7s.  6d. 

Curtis,  E.  L.  Chronicles  (in  the  '  International  Critical 
Commentary')  125-. 

Davidson,  A.  B.  Job  (3s  ),  Ezekicl  (3s.),  Nahum,  Habakkuk, 
and  Zephaniah  (is.  6d.),  all  in  the  'Cambridge  Bible.' 

Driver,  S.  R.  Genesis  (in  the  '  Westminster  Commen- 
taries '),  IDS.  6d.  ;  Deuteronomy  (in  the  '  International  Critical 
Commentary'),  12s.  ;  Exodus  (35,  6d.)  ;  Joel  and  Amos  (2s.6d.), 
and  Daniel  (2s.  6d.),  all  in  the  '  Cambridge  Bible.' 

Gibson,  E.  C.  S.  Job  (in  the 'Westminster  Commentaries'),  6s. 

Kirkpatrick,  A.  F.  The  Psalms  (6s.),  in  the  *  Cambridge 
Bible.' 

McNeile,  A.  H.  Exodus  (in  the  'Westminster  Commen- 
taries ')  ;  Numbers  (in  the  '  Cambridge  Bible  '),  2S.  6d. 

Skinner,  J.  Gd«^s/s  (m  the  '  International  Critical  Commen- 
tary '),  I2S.  bd.  ;  Isaiah  (in  the  '  Cambridge  Bible '),  vol.  i. 
(chaps,  i.-xxxix.),  vol.  ii.  (chaps,  xl.-lxvi.),  each  2s.  td. 

Smith,  George  Adam.  Isaiah  (2  vols.,  ys.  6d.  each)  ;  and 
The  Minor  Prophets  (2  vols.,  ys.6d.  each)  ;  both  in  the  '  Ex- 
positor's Bible.' 

Wade,  G.  W.   Isaiah  (in  the  '  Westminster  Commentaries '). 

Woods,  F.  H.,  and  Powell,  F.  E.     The  Hebrew  Prophets  for 
English  Readers  (R.V.,  with  introductions,  headings,  and  short 
explanatory  notes).     In  4  vols.,  each  2s.  6d. 
Cooke,  Canon  G.  A.     The  Progress  of  Revelation,  1910  ^Sermons 

on  the  Old  Testament),  4s.  6d. 
DoDS,  Marcus.     The  Bible  ;  its  Origin  and  Nature  (1905),  4s.  6d. 

Driver,  S.  R.    Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament, 

(ed.  8,  1909),  I2S. 
Sermons  on  Subjects  connected  with  the  Old  Testament 

(1892),  6s. 

Isaiah  ;  His  Life  and  Times  (2s.  6rf.). 

The  Book  of  the  Prophet  Jeremiah,  a  revised  translation. 


with  introduction  and  short  explanations  (1909),  6s. 
90 


SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

The  Book  of  Job  in   R.V.,   with   introduction  and  brief 

explanatory  notes  [is.  6d.). 

Essay  in  Hogarth's  Authority  and  Archceology ;  Sacred 


and  Profane  (i6s.),  pp.  1-152  (on  the  light  thrown  by  archaeo- 
logy upon  the  Old  Testament). 

Edghill,  E.  a.  An  Enquiry  into  the  Evidential  Value  of  Prophecy 
(1906),  6s. 

Farrar,  F.  W.     The  Minor  Prophets  (2s.  6d.). 

Fry,  Rev.  T.  C,  D.D.  The  Growth  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
How  to  Read  the  Old  Testament  (Brown,  Langham  &  Co.), 
each  3^. 

Gibson,  E.  C.  S.  (now  Bishop  of  Gloucester).  Messages  from  the 
Old  Testament  (3s.  6rf.).  Sermons  on  the  Old  Testament,  from 
a  critical  standpoint. 

Gray,  G.  B.  The  Divine  Discipline  of  Israel  (2s.  bd.).  On  the 
growth  of  moral  ideas  in  the  Old  Testament, 

Hastings,  J.  A  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  In  4  vols,  (discount 
price  2 IS.  each).  Also  an  extra  volume  (with  articles  on 
special  subjects,  such  as  Hammurabi's  Code,  and  Indexes),  21s. 

A  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  (in  one  vol.),  20s. 

Jordan,  Prof.  W.  G.  Biblical  Criticism  and  Modern  Thought 
(discussions  on  the  place  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  life  of 
to-day),  7s.  6d. 

Kent,  C.  F.  The  Origin  and  Permanent  Value  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment (1906)  6s. 

KiRKPATRiCK.  A.  F.  The  Divine  Library  of  the  Old  Testament ;  its 
Origin,  Preservation,  Inspiration,  and  Permanent  Value  (3s.). 
Five  lectures  delivered  at  St.  Asaph. 

The  Doctrine  of  the  Prophets  (6s.).     An  account  of 

the  times  and  writings  of  the  prophets,  and  of  their  charac- 
teristic teaching. 

McFadyen,  J.  E.  Old  Testament  Criticism  and  the  Christian 
Church  {6s.). 

Nairne,  Rev.  A.  (Professor  of  Hebrew  at  King's  College,  London). 
Modem  Biblical  Criticism  in  reference  to  the  Old  Testament 
(S.P.C.K.),  2d. 

MooRHOUSE,  Rev.  A.  The  Inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament 
(C.  H.  Kelly),  id. 

Ottley,  R.  L.     The  Hebrew  Prophets  (is.) 

History  of  the  Hebrews  (5s.). 

The  Religion  of  Israel  (4s.). 

91 


SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS. 

'  What  is  the  Higher  Criticism  ?  '   (An  Essay  in  Practical 

Questions  (published  by  Brown,  Langham  &  Co.),  6s. 
Ragg,  Lonsdale.     The  Book  of  Books  (igio). 
Robinson,  J.  Armitage  (late  Dean  of  Westminster,  now  Dean  of 

Wells).     Some  Thoughts  on  Inspiration  (Longmans,  1905),  6d. 
Ryle,  H.  E.  (late  Bishop  of  Winchester,  now  Dean  of  Westmin- 
ster).    The  Early  Narratives  of  Genesis  (3s.) 
On  Holy  Scripture  and  Criticism  (4s.  6d.).     A  collection  of 

Addresses. 
Sanday,  W.     The  Oracles  of  God;  Nine  Lectures  on  the  Nature 

and  Extent  of  Biblical  Inspiration,  and  the  special  significance 

of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  at  the  present  time  (4s.). 
Inspiration  (the  '  Bampton    Lectures  '  for   1893),  7s.  6rf. 

Lectures  ii.-v.  deal  specially  with  the  Old  Testament. 
Smith,  George  Adam.     Modern  Criticism  and  the  Preaching  of  the 

Old  Testament  {6s.). 
Smith,  W.  Robertson.     The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Churchy 

(ed.    2,    1892)    IDS.   6d.      A   course   of   Lectures   on   Biblical 

Criticism. 

The  Prophets  of  Israel  (ed.  2,  1895). 

Streatfeild,  G.   S.      a  Parish  Clergyman' s  Thoughts  about  the 

Higher  Criticism  (Birmingham  :    The  Midland    Educational 

Co.),  6d. 
New  Knowledge  and  Old  Methods  (London  :   Bemrose  & 

Sons,  4,  Snow  Hill,  E.C.),  2rf. 
Wade,  G.  W.     Old  Testament  History  (6s.). 
Watson,  Dr.  F.     Inspiration  (S.P.C.K.,  1906),  45. 
Woods,  F.  H.     The  Hope  of  Israel  (3  s.  6d.)     A  course  of  Lectures 

on  the   Contents  and  Character  of  the  Prophecies  of  the  Old 

Testament,  with  especial  reference  to  the  predictions  contained 

in  them. 

On  the  general  principles  of  the  examination  of  documents, 
which  forms  the  necessary  foundation  of  all  historical  studjy, 
reference  may  be  made  to  Langlois  and  Seignobos,  Introduction 
to  the  Study  of  History  (transl.  by  G.  G.  Berry  :  7s.  6d.)  ;  and  to 
Prof.  W.  E.  Collins  (afterwards  Bishop  of  Gibraltar),  The  Study  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  (2s.  6d.) 


92 


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